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Amid the sometimes exaggerated pessimism prompted by Australia’s 3-0 Ashes loss, I have identified seven significant positives to come from the series for the tourists.
1. Nathan Lyon showed he has learned from his mistakes
The South Australian tweaker began his Test career delivering the ball in a tantalising arc which drew Sri Lanka’s masterful strokemaker Kumar Sangakkara into a false prod.
The loop and dip which deceived Sangakkara and earned Lyon a wicket from his first ball in Tests was notably absent during the last Australian summer.
As Australia tried to dislodge Faf du Plessis on the final day at Adeliade, Lyon grew increasingly impatient, hurrying through his overs and operating with a flat, unthreatening trajectory.
Despite being dumped in India and then again for the first Ashes Test despite having taken nine wickets in his previous outing, Lyon maintained a positive demeanour within the Australian squad.
His return to the side was uninspiring as he secured 1-103 at Manchester while bowling in the same style which had proved so ineffective against the Proteas.
Lyon was almost unrecognisable in the final two Tests, as he matched Swann rev-for-rev, getting the ball to swerve and drop dramatically before biting off the pitch.
He was rewarded with eight wickets at 25 in those matches.
His composure amid torrid battles with Kevin Pietersen, a notoriously belligerent player of spin, was particularly instructive.
This calm when confronted by aggression contrasted starkly to his panicked efforts while trying to quell a rampant MS Dhoni during the Indian captain’s awe-inspiring double ton at Chennai.
The most crucial task for any athlete is to learn from their mistakes and adapt accordingly. Lyon’s improvement suggests he has done just this.
2. Australia proved they can rebound from painful losses
Australia suffered humiliating losses at Lords and Chester-le-Street.
Buoyed by a rousing chase in which they fell just 15 runs short in the series opener, the Aussies hopes of regaining the Ashes were promptly vaporised in the second Test at the home of cricket.
Australia’s top order folded in both innings at Lords as they suffered the ignominy of a 347-run defeat.
At Chester-le-Street the visitors endured its most galling loss of the series. After putting themselves in a winning position at 1-147 chasing 299, the Aussies imploded losing 9-77.
Following both losses obituaries were written for Australian cricket.
Yet on both occasions the Aussie showed admirable resilience and took control of the following Test, building huge first innings leads.
Inclement weather forced them into second innings declarations in both Tests in a desperate effort to extract victory from truncated matches.
While they triumphed in neither Test and were saved from what would have been a rather bizarre defeat in the series closer, if not for the rain Australia may well have won at Old Trafford and made England scrap for a draw at The Oval.
In both Tests they showed the tenacity and passion in the face of adversity which was so manifestly missing from their performances in the 4-0 loss in India.
3. The batsmen are finally making centuries
In the wake of the Lords debacle, it was highlighted that only two centuries had been scored by Aussie batsmen in their previous seven Tests.
Over Australia’s following five innings, four batsmen passed triple figures.
First Michael Clarke lit up Old Trafford with his imperious innings of 187.
Then Chris Rogers registered an emotional maiden Test ton at Chester-le-Street.
Finally, Shane Watson vanquished his century hoodoo and Steve Smith signalled his maturation into an effective long-form batsman in the series closer at The Oval.
Australia’s batsman have routinely wasted starts and failed to convert half centuries this year.
Match-winning totals are so often built around one big innings, so it is no great surprise the Aussies have rarely made scores in excess of 400.
The glut of tons in the last three Tests is then perhaps the biggest positive to come out of the series for the Aussies.
If their batsmen continue to cash in on their starts Australia can challenge England in the return series and South Africa in the away tour which follows.
4. Australia’s paceman effectively executed well-conceived strategies
Even the most commanding batsmen have weaknesses. Exploiting those, however, is far from elementary.
The Aussie brains trust formulated astute plans for England lynchpins Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior who together had destroyed them in the last Ashes series.
Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and, to a lesser extent, Shane Watson executed those strategies with an efficiency so clinical it may have shocked even their coaches.
Certainly they caught off guard Cook, Trott and Prior. The English trio were left in no doubt how the Aussies were seeking to dismiss them.
Yet, over the course of five Tests, they were incapable of countering Australia’s shrewd tactics.
The Aussie quicks also troubled Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow throughout the series by consistently bowling full and straight.
Only Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen passed 50 more than three times in the series for England and even then, the latter’s series average of 39 was well below his career mark of 48.
Cook, Trott, Prior, Root and Bairstow will spend the next three months analysing how to combat the Aussie quicks, the same way their opponents were left searching for answers after England’s batting onslaught in 2010.
In that way, the Australian quicks implementation of clever plans has turned the tables on England.
5. Steve Smith continued his rebirth as an effective long-form batsman
Ridiculed as a comically-inept batsman with a technique more flawed than a teenage complexion, Steve Smith’s selection for the first Test was roundly derided.
Many of his critics appeared not to have noticed his rousing efforts with the blade on Australia’s disastrous tour of India, during which he displayed a marked improvement in both temperament and application.
The 23-year-old promptly served notice of his development at Trent Bridge, cracking Steven Finn for four boundaries in quick succession after coming to the crease with his side in catastrophic strife at 3-22.
Soon after, he raised more eyebrows by skipping down the track the second ball he faced from England’s wizardly spinner Graeme Swann to loft him into the crowd.
Such self-assuredness had been lacking among Australia’s stuttering batting line-up, especially its youthful members.
Smith’s 345 runs at 38 this Ashes series exceeded the returns of all English batsmen bar Bell and Pietersen.
The confidence imbued by such a performance may well allow Smith to flourish and raise his game to another level in the return Ashes contest.
6. Ryan Harris made it through unscathed
Prior to this series, the 33-year-old had never played more than three Tests consecutively.
That run of matches in the 2010 Ashes ended when Harris suffered a serious ankle injury which required months of rehabilitation.
Not surprisingly, expectations were low for the Queenslander in this Ashes, with predictions he would be lucky to take part in three of the five Tests let alone four on the trot.
Tormenting England’s batsman with an in-between length which often saw them caught on the crease, Harris underlined his credentials as one of the elite bowlers in Test cricket.
In seven Ashes matches, Harris has snared 35 wickets at 21.
If Australia are to cause an upset in the return series down under, the canny quick will need to be similarly incisive and take the field in at least four of the five Tests.
The probability of that occurring has been boosted by Harris’ unexpected durability over the past five weeks.
7. Chris Rogers bought Jordan Silk and Nic Maddinson time to develop
At 35 years of age, Chris Rogers was never intended to be a long-term solution.
The veteran opener was drafted into the side in the hope he would provide a much-needed steady hand at the top of the order in the back-to-back Ashes contests and the South African tour.
His success against the Poms has reduced the likelihood the selectors will prematurely blood either of the two most promising young batsmen in the country, 21-year-olds Jordan Silk and Nic Maddinson.
Blessed with limitless patience and a tight defence, Tasmanian opener Silk is perhaps better suited to the longest form of the game than any Aussie batsman aged under 25.
In just Silk’s second first-class game in March, he helped Tasmania qualify for the Shield final by notching 52 and 127 against a strong Victorian attack.
His next outing at Shield level was the final in which he again led his side to victory , defying Queensland’s Ryan Harris, James Hopes and Nathan Hauritz for six hours in the first innings on his way to consecutive tons.
New South Welshmen Maddinson, meanwhile, is Australia’s most outrageously gifted young batsman.
A polar opposite of the circumspect Silk, Maddinson prefers to decimate attacks.
He scored at better than a run a ball while piling up 528 runs at an average of 75 in four recent matches for Australia A in Britain and Africa.
However, neither Maddinson nor Silk appear prepared for an immediate ascension to Test level. Both would benefit from another full season of Shield cricket.
The impressive manner in which Rogers has adapted to Test cricket should ensure they are afforded the luxury of such development.