Australia finished off a comprehensive 5-0 win over England with a big 281 run win at the SCG.
It was another weak performance from England who seemed more desperate than Gilligan to get off this island and home again.
This is the report card from the Ashes, with ratings for players from both teams.
Alastair Cook
A guy with 8000 Test runs, Cook didn’t make any impact with the bat over the 10 Ashes Tests.
Seemed if Australia was disciplined in not giving him freedom through the offside, didn’t really have a plan B.
This was highly surprising as you can’t get to 8000 runs at an excellent average without having more than a Plan A.
However Cook struggled both home and away, and by the end of it would have been happy to walk off the SCG and get away from cricket.
Cook also got hammered by Shane Warne over his captaincy. Warne did a lot of damage to England with the ball over his career but he went equally hard at Cook this time with microphone in hand.
By the time others got hold of it would have been hard for Cook to deal with given so much criticism was coming his way.
It would be hard to mount a case to defend Cook for his boring captaincy, but Warne was a bit over the top and a bit out of line given his captaincy record at Test cricket stands at a big fat duck egg cause he was too ill disciplined to captain Australia in the first place.
Score: 2/10
Michael Carberry
Showed promise, potential and technique in his debut Ashes series. But even for an inexperienced player, making a lot of starts and not kicking on wasn’t good enough.
England may want to stick with him though because his technique looks good enough for Test cricket. He just needs to learn to turn a start into a big score.
Score: 4/10
Joe Root
Got dropped for the final Ashes Test, reportedly due to a bad attitude.
He only produced one innings of note throughout both series, at Lords in England. He had a decent knock in Adelaide, but the rest was a whole heap of average stuff.
He needs to toughen up at Test level.
Score: 3/10
Kevin Pietersen
Once the most threatening player in the English side, Pietersen should retire.
He looked disinterested for 98% of the series. Some of the shots including the swipe across the line in Adelaide to mid wicket and the catching practice in Perth were disgraceful.
He looked like he was doing what he had to in Sydney to collect his pay packet and get out of there.
England should dump this bloke for the good of their team. His disgraceful treatment of Andrew Strauss is hard to forget.
Score: -5/10
Ian Bell
Although I’ve never rated this pretender, he was the difference when the same two teams met in England five months ago. This time around it was back to earth for Bell whose average of 26 wasn’t good enough for an experienced middle order bat.
Score: 4/10
Ben Stokes
Provided the only highlight for England’s batsmen over the entire five Tests with his excellent 120 in Perth.
It was the only time an English batsman applied himself with skill and quality.
It was an excellent innings and only in his second Test.
Stokes had other decent moments as well with the ball in particularly in Australia’s first innings in Sydney. Him and Broad were the only two Englishmen who can walk away from the series with some pride intact.
Score: 7/10
Matt Prior
Was poor in England and only lasted three Tests in Australia. Just couldn’t score a run and after his keeping in Perth, which was extremely poor, he got dumped for some bloke that didn’t do any better.
Score: 1/10
Stuart Broad
Set England up in Brisbane with an excellent spell of bowling but from then on it was all Australia.
Bowled well at times taking around 20 wickets with some heart and aggression, something his teammates wouldn’t know about.
Score: 7/10
Graeme Swann
Just a shadow of the bowler he has been over the last 4-5 years. Persisted going around the wicket far too much. Australia’s plan to attack him from the get go in Brisbane paid off and sent him into retirement.
If he comes out of retirement in more suitable English conditions it will be the greatest farce of all time and will show him up as the greatest peaheart to ever play the sport.
It surely won’t happen.
Score: 1/10
Tim Bresnan
Tried hard and didn’t have much luck on the way, especially in Melbourne. Nothing to write home about.
Score: 3/10
Jim Anderson
Down on form and his inability to get the ball to swing reduced his effectiveness. Disappointing series for a man spoken about as one of England’s best.
Score: 3/10
Australia
Chris ‘the Rock’ Rogers
It’s a real black eye for Australia’s cricket selectors from the last 6-7 years that its taken so long to select the rock to play.
They picked pretty boy Shane Watson at opener and they tried pretend with Ed Cowan and Phil Hughes (whose technique is all over the place). However the Rock, whose batting isn’t spectacular but he puts real value on his wicket, was booted after one Test in 2008.
The Australian selectors at the time should be embarrassed and be held accountable. Outstanding in Melbourne and Sydney.
Score: 8/10
Dave Warner
Big mouth, big shots, big runs. Never going to be the smartest bloke in the team but can win matches like he did early in the series when it mattered. Fell away a bit towards the end. Very good fieldsman.
Score: 8/10
Shane Watson
Pretty boy cashed in with some good hitting in Perth and good batting in Melbourne but majority of the time batted like someone more interested in not messing up his pretty blonde hair than knocking out some tough first innings runs.
Luckiest ever cricketer to play 50 Tests for Australia since Geoff Marsh, who was AB’s best mate.
Score: 5/10
Michael Clarke
Made runs when it mattered early in the series. Led the team very well and with his mate Warne doing his best to rock the England ship, he had help off the field. Fell away with the bat late in the series but overall very good.
Score: 8/10
Steve Smith
Still remains unconvincing as a consistent Test cricketer but two centuries in the series and also looking safe in the slips made his contributions very valuable.
Score: 7.5/10
George Bailey
There is only so long a bloke can pretend to be a Test cricketer for. If he gets selected for South Africa it will be more to keep a winning team together than anything he contributed with the bat.
Score: 3/10
Brad Haddin
Outstanding. Got the team out of trouble on a number of times with some excellent batting. Also, his glovework was first class.
Score: 10/10
Mitchell Johnson
Rare for a cricketer, especially a fast bowler, to have his best series at the age of 32. The improvement in Johnson is quite amazing.
Was superb especially in the first two Tests. His spell on day two in Brisbane set up the series and the over in Adelaide where he took three wickets in an over was the greatest over in the history of Test cricket.
Marvellous.
Score: 10/10
Peter Siddle
For a guy not blessed with a whole heap of talent, he puts in and has been a good back up bowler without producing anything too amazing.
Score: 6/10
Ryan Harris
Very good series. Got plenty of big wickets.
Score: 8/10
Nathan Lyon
Made important breakthroughs and bowled tightly throughout the series. Wasn’t dismissed with bat in hand over five Tests.
Score: 8/10
Beardan
Roar Guru
To be honest it sounds like you've been on Warsons back a few times...
macca
Guest
who else has got the stomach to play at no 3 get off watsons back.
Beardan
Roar Guru
Pretty good summary. I thought Lyon was harshly dealt with especially before the first test in England where they took a kid on a contiki tour in Ashton Agar and played him in two tests. Luckily for Lyon, Agar was allowed to continue his contiki tour ater the Lords test.
Beardan
Roar Guru
Pieterson got a -5. Thats ever lower than the 0 he would have got for not turning up at all. It pretty much meant he helped Australia more than his own team.
Beardan
Roar Guru
Simon was talking about stats and I brought up that looking at a stat alone, say 28 off an over when you are 470 in front isnt as valuable as 28 in 3 hours say of you are 4/30. If its too hard for you to follow Stray Gator, maybe follow something that's simpler, like Home and Away.
Stray Gator
Roar Rookie
What a non-sequitur! Relevance of Bailey to a comment in which Watson was the cited example?
Peaches
Guest
Watson ended the series well but still feel like we are only ever getting 80% of his potential. At his age and experience, that's disappointing. Smith is most definately a test player. In the 2 toughest pitches when everyone else bar Haddin struggled of the WACA and Sydney, he had centuries which set up victories. Bailey is lucky no one else can command the spot yet so he'll continue to get the gig. In saying that he's a handy 6th man. A good fielder, quality team member and experienced. Faulkner isn't quite a good enough bat and Doolan isn't in the best of form. North is too old to go back too I feel and White has the same problem of Hughes & Khawaja in that will he ever get another chance or are the selectors giving other blokes opportunities now. I think Burns, Lynn, Silk or Madison could be smokies. The selectors like Whiteman and Wade too I feel. Hopefully Lyon will now be left alone. He is quite clearly our premier spinner and fits in well with the best bowling attack.
Tom Syrmas
Roar Rookie
Interesting point, but I still think that Watson deserved more than 5. I would also like to know how Watson, who scored 345 runs with a century and two fifties, as well as a handful of wickets, was only half score above Pietersen, who has a much greater reputation, and did a lot less in the series?
Beardan
Roar Guru
Carberry has played 5 test matches, Watson has played 51! CArberry showed promise as an opener. Its time for Watson to deliver. Watson has plenty of ability, but to average 36 after 51 tests is poor. Sure he bowls but so does Kallis, and Kallis averaged 55 over more than 15 years. Watson has so much more experience than Carberry, comparing the two would be unfair to Carberry who is just starting out. They do have something in common, making starts and not going on with it. However after 5 tests you can excuse it, after 51 tests you probably should start to look elsewhere. Lucky for Watson elsewhere is Phil Hughes or Usman Khawaja, neither whom have set the test cricket world alight in their previous chances at that level.
Tom Syrmas
Roar Rookie
Actually I find Watson's hair most unappealing to be honest. I think it needs a cut. But back to issues that might be of interest to the readers of this article, you are quite right, Watson's scores in the first dig are disappointing. However, explain to me, if you will, what Carberry did to be only 10% less valuable and productive than Watson in this series? And before you lambaste my question, Carberry is bald.
Beardan
Roar Guru
-Harris getting a 9/10 i could almost go with. He was gifted a few wickets in Sydney when England were doing their best to get a late flight out of Sydney. However he was very good througout the series. Clarke's captaincy has been excellent for a while if you dont count that declaration against India when they were about 9-230 and India were about 1-300 in reply
Beardan
Roar Guru
I thought I was being subjective. I actually had Pieterson down for a -7 but then took into account he was never late on any days play.
Beardan
Roar Guru
You must give points for how well he brushes his hair each morning. When you stop looking at pictures of Shane Watson, can you send me his first innings scores for the series please.
Luke Smyke
Roar Pro
This is clearly a medium which allows you to overtly voice your favorite and least favorite cricketers in the Ashes series. It is evident you dont think highly of the somewhat gaudy, pompous players in Pietersen and Watson, but when analysing a series and each individual player's contributions please at least try to mask the your subjective predilections in order to achieve exactly what it is you claimed to do- provide an analysis.
Beardan
Roar Guru
Thank goodness you arent a selector.
Beardan
Roar Guru
You didnt see Pietersons shots in Adelaide and Perth? You didnt see him turning it up on the boundary throughout the series. Fishing outside off in Sydney like he wanted to get out. The bloke is a knucklehead who should be dumped. He is lucky there doesnt appear to be much coming through. Might keep him going a little while yet.
Beardan
Roar Guru
You are clearly a good judge of rankings Cantab
Tom Syrmas
Roar Rookie
These rating are a touch inconsistent. If Shane Watson is a 5, how is George Bailey a 3? Watson scored a ton, batted us to victory with Buck in Melbourne, caught well in the slips, and took some key wickets. Sure, he wasn't consistent, but he contributed in every test in one way or another, and while I don't necessarily disagree with him getting a 5 (perhaps a 6 or a 7 though), I can't see how he is only two points above Bailey.
Beardan
Roar Guru
If he was their best bat, he was the best of a terrible bunch. He wasnt their best bat anyway, at least Stokes applied himself to the best of his ability, Pieterson didnt. He would prefer to play for Kevin Pieterson than England. The sooner they get rid of this turkey the better off they will be.
Beardan
Roar Guru
Lyon was excellent. Bowled tightly and took some big wickets. Stokes and Broad got hold of him last innings in Sydney but that was just a free tonk before they went home with their duckegg of wins.