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Arch, think Wood definitely needs to get his skates on in regards of delivering on his super star potential.....the fella just turned 32 last week.....got a fragile body apparently.....

Root's dismissal tonight sums up the fella's tour.....obviously a tour to forget, Root batted well under heavy duress from Aust seamers and lack of support from with in. Though didn't help himself with some strange team selections, toss decisions and fielding placements. Will he follow Kohli's lead and give up the captaincy?....might just enable him to concentrate on his own performance instead of those performances around him.

As for JL.....obviously a T20 W/C win and a 4-0 ashes drubbing could be the perfect way to sign off....be interesting to see what decisions are made....by both board and coach......

Great to see the development of Cam Green, obviously a super star in the making....at 22/23 years of age.....have more hope of Green reaching his potential then Wood TBH....get that initial test 100 and I reckon the runs will flow.....rather see him bat 4 or 5 though.....well done to Head on his MOM/MOS awards......hopefully can build on this.....just got to find an opener or two.....reckon Teague Wyllie could be a roughie in the near future.....only 17 and not in WA starting 11 I know.......but not sure Harris is going to get any better....and Warner is not going to get any younger....fingers crossed Pucovski can over come his concussion woes...

I didn't realise Mark Wood was 32, Freez - I might've got slightly carried away with my "superstar" tag.
I wonder if Joe Root will have a say about the captaincy - 10 Tests in charge Down Under for eight losses and two draws (thanks to the batting of Alastair Cook four years ago and Johnny Bairstow a week ago). 
Assuming the next Ashes series in Australia is four years away, I wonder if Cam Green will be going out to toss the coin at the Gabba in mid-November 2025 with an as yet unknown England player.
I don't think many of the England XI that played in Hobart will be back, while perhaps only Green, Pat Cummins, Marnus Labuschagne and, maybe, Travis Head will be in the Aussie line-up.
Re Justin Langer's future as coach, I thought I read something about Cummins saying he has the team's support.
I think footy clubs traditionally say the same thing about the coach before they sack him.

Cam Green does some pretty impressive stuff in the field.  He’d just about hold his place on fielding alone.

It really was an Ashes series dominated by the ball.

Who would have thought before the series that we would only get 1 century (106 by Labushagne in Adelaide in which he had numerous chances) between our big 3 batsmen- Smith, Warner & Labuschagne, you would have thought we would have been demolished with that stat but luckily both Head & Khawaja bobbed up to score a couple each.

To be honest there wasnt a huge amount between the respective bowling attacks we did probably take the honours in the end but I thought England bowled well for the majority of the series lead by Wood, Broad, Robinson & Anderson with cameos from Woakes, Stokes, Root, Malan & Leach but luckily for our bowling cartel of Cummins, Starc, Boland, Green, Lyon, Hazlewood, Richardson, Neser & Smith we were bowling to the England batting line up who to be brutally honest Root aside were horrendous.
Crawley shows a bit of talent definitely worth persevering with, Malan like the last time they toured started well but fell away, Bairstow played well in Sydney, Stokes had his moments but was obviously a bit under done coming off no cricket for most of 2021 and Root got starts in every innings but that century in Australia alludes him again well until 2025/26 at least whilst Billings showed a bit in this 5th Test both with the gloves and bat that he is worth being given another opportunity in their next Test Series.
On the other hand Burns has the worst technique I can remember, Hameed looked like a walking wicket every time he came to the crease, Pope the same and Buttler played a gutsy knock in Adelaide but doesnt seem to know how to pace an innings in Test cricket.

For us Warner started ok but once Broad came back he became a deer in the headlights again and should not play in England in 2023 for that very reason, Harris had a good opportunity in Melbourne to silence his critics but once again got out and for the most part was ordinary, Labuschagne had a mountain of luck during the series and at least got starts in most innings, Smith has been worked out I feel by the opposition bowlers bowling short at the body and he seems to be unsure and in 2 minds what to do, Head hopefully goes on with it after having a break out series with the bat with the attitude of really taking it up to the bowlers although has his issues like a few of his team mates at the short balls directed at the body, Green looked shaky early but seemed to settle down after the 2nd dig in Sydney, Khawaja did his job in Sydney but is 36 this year, Carey had some shaky moments with both the gloves and bat but at least finished this Test well and worth the first crack in our next Test with Inglis & Phillipe hard on his hammer for the role.

All in all an enjoyable Ashes series with a 4-0 result (should have been 5-0) but still some work to do especially with our batting before we head back to the ol dart next year for another enthralling Ashes series in England.

You just got to love Test Cricket!

Good summation BH. Yes the bang and crash white ball stuff gives a up bit of light hearted entertainment but you can't beat test cricket with everything that goes with it. I must say I thought the playing wickets were pretty ordinary in the main but have a sneaking suspicion they were doctored to take into account no Archer and only Wood with any genuine pace amongst the Poms. The MCG was a goat track and Hobart only marginally better but I guess the poor batting of the Poms also contributed to games being over within 3 days. Anyway, off to the subcontinent now which will be an entirely different kettle of fish.

Boland was the selection of the summer for me. He had been toiling in the Shield for a decade and had a few undistinguished ODI's to his name but he basically came from nowhere into test cricket and we have to give Bailey and the selectors the credit for spotting something in him. Overall I think that the selection of the Australian team was pretty spot on although easy to be wise after a 4- 0 victory. In contrast England appeared to have a big dart board and select players on that basis, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to who they were picking for which tests. Some examples

• Not picking Broad or Anderson for the 1st test on a Brisbane greentop
• Leaving out a spinner in Adelaide
• Broad only playing one of the three tests when the ashes were still live
• Persisting with Buttler as keeper even though it was obvious that he was totally lacking form and confidence.

As BH said Englands batting was abysmal apart from Root and the fact that Mitchell Starc had a higher average than most of them demonstrates this clearly.

England won 5-1 in 78-9, but the series was similar in that both saw the bowlers dominate; only the Brits passed 300 with a good batting line-up, a great credit to R M Hogg and the others at the time.

ArkRoyal wrote:

England won 5-1 in 78-9, but the series was similar in that both saw the bowlers dominate; only the Brits passed 300 with a good batting line-up, a great credit to R M Hogg and the others at the time.

Yes that was the series that Botham emerged as a top class all rounder but they also had some other excellent seamers such as Willis, Hendrick and Lever. Hogg did brilliantly, backed up by Hurst but Australia had a very brittle batting line up much like the England team has now. They lost wickets in clumps and gave up some promising positions that their bowlers had set up. A big asterisk to this series of course is that Australia had lost all of their best players to the Packer tests whereas England were a lot closer to full strength with Tony Grieg the only prominent player missing.

mikeh wrote:

ArkRoyal wrote:

England won 5-1 in 78-9, but the series was similar in that both saw the bowlers dominate; only the Brits passed 300 with a good batting line-up, a great credit to R M Hogg and the others at the time.

Yes that was the series that Botham emerged as a top class all rounder but they also had some other excellent seamers such as Willis, Hendrick and Lever. Hogg did brilliantly, backed up by Hurst but Australia had a very brittle batting line up much like the England team has now. They lost wickets in clumps and gave up some promising positions that their bowlers had set up. A big asterisk to this series of course is that Australia had lost all of their best players to the Packer tests whereas England were a lot closer to full strength with Tony Grieg the only prominent player missing.

Spot on Mike, I dont take too much notice of that 1978/79 series as we had 17 of our best players missing away playing in WSC whilst England had their full strength side to pick from.
Similarly with the 1985 series in England where we had a host of players choose to go on the rebel tour to South Africa and then being banned from playing for Australia for a few years....imagine if Alderman had of gone to England instead of SA considering he took 40+ wickets in both the 1981 & 89 Ashes series over there?!
I suppose the Poms might say similar for 1982/83 for them with the likes of Gooch, Gatting etc going on a rebel tour to SA instead of touring here.

Here’s an interesting article on the state of English cricket.

www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-20/is-englis...hes-defeat/100762798