A little over two months ago, England came to Australia to win their fourth consecutive Ashes series, but the vast majority of the test team will return home with their tails clasped between their legs.
Before the start of the first test match at the Gabba, England were the favorites to stay in the polls, but after being demolished by Australia in Brisbane, they could never stand up to a relentless home team. England were finally put out of their misery in Sydney last weekend when they were outclassed again by an Australian team determined to score the 5-0 and shake off the last three Ashes defeats against the old enemy.
Australia had shown signs of life last summer, despite the 3-0 defeat in England, and this time turned out to be a different team from those who have lost to England countless times in recent years.
Mitchell Johnson’s revival made all the difference to the first test match, with his wild pace and bounce tearing through England’s batting order like a hot knife in butter. The English batsmen didn’t always get along with Johnson, because the 32-year-old won the male prize of the series after accumulating 37 excellent reasons!
Johnson looked like a new man this time compared to yesterday’s Wayward pitcher, whom “Crackpot Army” often mocked with a now infamous song. Even the fiercest English fans will now admit that Johnson, with his too fast pace, was the main difference between the two teams. Johnson was ably supported by the excellent Ryan Harris and the hardworking Peter Siddle, who did not give the England batsman a Minute’s rest. Nathan Lyon has also provided Michael Clarke with a good spin option for the Australians, who have repeatedly managed to fix English batsmen who have never been able to play their natural game.
The other Star of the series for Australia was certainly Brad Haddin, who once again showed how important he is to the team. Haddin placed seventh and finished the series with a bar average of 61.62, the highest of the two teams, but more importantly, he produced the goods when Australia needed them most. His first knock of 94 runs in Brisbane was particularly important because England had finished Australia’s top order, but as the tourists would often learn during the series, Haddin was on hand to carry out the reconstruction.
England went from one crisis to another during the series, with Jonathan Trott leaving the tour after the first test match and Graeme Swann retiring after the third Test, in particular two low points. These two starts were clearly big blows for the team, but this cannot be attributed to the way England regularly scored from Brisbane to Sydney.
Only twice in the ten innings of the series have England exceeded 300, which is a remarkable statistic for such an experienced and successful team. Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen have 68 tons of test time, but none could manage a single one in Australia, and all three finished the series with averages under 30. the only bright Spark from the point of view of the English batsmen came from the young Ben Stokes, who scored a wonderful 120 during
England will leave Australia with a lot of questions as they try to rebuild their squad to find the Urn on home soil in 2015. Question marks surround coach Andy Flower and captain Alastair Cook, while the future is uncertain for Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior, among others. There are no such questions for Australia, who now intend to continue their dominance during the ODI series before flying to South Africa for what could be the best test action of 2014.
The next step for England is a series of one-day and twenty-twenty underground matches where you can try to restore some pride, but in terms of test performances you will have to wait until the summer when Sri Lanka and India will resist as the team tries to correct everything that went wrong this winter.
