When England regained the Ashes in 2005 after so many years of Australian dominance, their team was duly Honoured by the Queen presumably for having rediscovered how to win against the Australians. The general view was that the 2005 series hinged on the improbable event of Glenn McGrath twisting his ankle on a cricket ball thus ruling himself out of a critical match. What we don't know is exactly when that great Australian team had reached it's peak. It boasted a wealth of talent with many capable of dictating the outcome of a Test Match. The names still trip off the tongue: Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath and Lee to name but a few.
Sometimes, one side is in the ascendency at the same time as their opponents are in decline. Only hindsight reveals the truth. The 2005 series showed the Australians coming to the end of the line with a tried and trusted team with England pulling themselves out of the mire after so many years of self doubt. All great players reach their shelf life. The king is dead, long live the king.
Since 2005, England have largely been in the ascendency but more due to their team ethos than to match winners. They've certainly had some good players but not many that I would call match winners. Either way, the time is up for Alistair Cook's England and the real inquisition will begin when they return to Blighty. After much licking of wounds and soul searching, certain facts will linger to haunt them. The decision to drop Nick Compton after a couple of dodgy scores has proved hasty. Carberry has done his best but in all honesty, his best years are behind him and he has been found wanting at the highest level. Root has been messed around more than any player I can remember in recent years. I can't remember the last time a player so young has been employed at 1,2,3 and 6 in such a ludicrously short space of time. If his confidence is shot, it is little wonder. He was doing fine at number six and ought to have stayed there as Michael Vaughan did a decade earlier.
Now we move on to the three biggest culprits in this series. Cook has not proved himself as captain. I can say this because a good captain is not measured when the going is good. He is measured by his actions when the chips are down. On this basis, Cook has fallen well short of the mark. To make matters even worse, his batting has fallen to pieces with his judgement gone. He has played shots on this tour which he wouldn't have contemplated a couple of years ago. He must either be dropped from the team to rediscover his form or be stripped of the captaincy which seems to over burden him.
If Ian Bell is technically the best batsman in the side (and I believe he is), I have questions to ask. Why wasn't he batting at number three from the word go? The departure of Trott after Brisbane should have promoted Bell to three automatically. It shouldn't even have been open to discussion. Why is Jimmy Anderson sent in ahead of him? What on earth has happened to his shot selection. For me, Bell has been the biggest disappointment of the entire tour because I expect him to prize his wicket. In not doing so, he has initiated the domino effect of the lower batting order. I never expect much of Pieterson because you've got to get past all the hype and ego to fully understand what he has to offer. This has been a backs to the wall tour. Pieterson is the last player I would want under those circumstances. He is utterly incapable of discipline and is therefore far more of a liability than an asset. I doubt if he could spell the word team and fail to see what he brings to a dressing room in terms of camaraderie and bonding.
The one batsman on tour who had showed any type of form going in to it was Garry Ballance. He ought to have been a shoe-in at number five for the entire series. In truth, Ben Stokes only got the nod because of the poor form elsewhere. Since then he has let nobody down. He is young and, injuries permitting, will get better and better. Trott has been out of form for the entire series and had to go. His best years are now probably behind him and the promotion of Bairstow was the only logical solution. There may be better keepers out there but his batting and his presence in the dressing room will more than compensate for that.
There is an old adage in cricket that bowlers win matches. The departure of Swann citing his retirement was a surprise to some. I had been expecting it because he didn't look as though he was enjoying his cricket any more. Swann was a bowler who needed a spring in his step and I sense that the England dressing room has not been a good place to be these last few months. Swann will be nigh on impossible to replace and Panesar is a poor replacement. As good a bowler as Panesar is, his batting and fielding are a million miles behind Swann. Swann was a match winning bowler and that is why he will be so hard to replace. In the end, the Australians worked out how to play him - aggressively.
Given the pre-series hype surrounding Broad, he has coped fairly well with the pressure but his batting has been appalling. He is probably the only front line bowler to emerge with any credit out of this series but needs to get back in to the middle and make some runs when he gets back to England. In his time, Anderson has been a good bowler for England. This series suggests that he has now come to the end of the line. He is a shadow of his former self and even average batsmen are taking him apart. Unfortunately for England, none of the three big fast bowlers have been worthy of selection and the selection of Boyd Rankin for this Test in Sidney will come back to haunt them.
Always give credit where it is due. For all the menace of Johnson in this series, it is the batting of Haddin which has made the most difference. At 36, he has spent most of his career playing understudy to the great Gilchrist. He has disappointed nobody. He has excelled and given steel to the Australian tail. How many times have the Australians been thankful to Haddin for bailing them out in this series? An extraordinary performance from a journeyman player.
A 5-0 loss will not be such a bad thing for England. They have been in need of a reality check for some time now and I suspect that last summer's Ashes victory was a little more than flattering to them. When Ian Botham and Alec Stewart both predicted England wins in this current Ashes series, I raised an eyebrow. For such seasoned professionals, their glasses seem to have become a little too rose tinted. The weaknesses in this England team have been on display for some time now. The big question now is who they turn to. A new captain is needed urgently and only Broad of the current batch seems to have the credentials - provided he can desist from the late night bars which have haunted him relentlessly up to now. His past decision to stand his ground when out would make his selection a contentious one but I can't see any better options at present. Whatever, England do next summer, they must do it without the gargantuan ego of Kevin Pieterson and move on. Time to start planning for the future and stop dining out on past glories?
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