A little over two months ago, England came to Australia to win their fourth Ashes series in a row, but the vast majority of the test team will go home with their tail firmly between their legs.
Before the first Test match started at the Gabba, England were the favourites to keep the urn, but having been demolished by Australia in Brisbane, they could never face a relentless team at home. England was finally released from its misery in Sd
Australia had shown signs of life last summer despite a 3-0 loss to England and this time proved to be a different team on its soil than the one that had lost to England countless times in recent years.
The Wiedergänger Mitchello Ohson made the difference from the first test match, with his fierce pace and his jump, which tore the English batting order like a hot knife in butter. English batsmen could not handle J
J Ohson seemed to be a new man this time, compared to the wayward pitcher of yesteryear, whom the army of Barm Arm, even the wildest English fans, will now admit that O Ohson was skillfully supported by the excellent R Harrisan Harris and the hard-working Peter Siddle, who never gave the English batsman a minute’s rest. Nathan LyOn also offered Michael Clarke a nice spin option for Australians, who consistently managed to fix English batsmen who were never able to play their natural game.
The other star in the show for Australia was undoubtedly Brad Haddin, who once again proved what an important part of the team he is. Haddin finished in seventh place and finished the series with an average of 61.62, the highest in either team, but mostly produced the products when Australia needed them most. His first 94-inning strike in Brisbane was particularly important as England had finished Australia’s first order, but as tourists would learn several times over the course of the series, Haddin was on hand to carry out the rebuilding work.
England went from crisis to crisis over the course of the series, withthese two starts were clearly big blows for the team, but this can not be attributed to how consistently England hit from Brisbane to Sd
Only twice in the ten innings of the series has England exceeded 300, which is a remarkable statistic for such an experienced and successful team. Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen all have 68 tons of test time, but none could match one in Australia, with all three finishing the series with averages under 30. The only bright spark from the England batsmen’s point of view came from the young Ben Stokes, who scored a wonderful 120 on his second Test appearance in Perth.
England will leave Australia with plenty of questions as it tries to rebuild its team to find the urn on its soil in 2015. Question marks surround coach and Flo FloerEr and captain Alastair Cook as the future is uncertain for Australia, who now intend to continue their dominance during the ODI series before flying to South Africa to witness perhaps the best test match of 2014.
The next step for England is a series of one-day underground matches, twenty-two, in which you can try to regain some pride, but in terms of test performance, you will have to wait until the summer, when Sri Lanka and India will provide resistance, as the team is trying to correct everything that went wrong in Australia this winter.