Spot on Paul. The difference was undoubtedly Hazelwood. If England had got 20-30 more in the power play it would have been a different result. That first 10 overs created so much pressure on RR which resulted in Morgan, Buttler and Ali throwing away their wickets cheaply to try and counter attack. I still think England have missed a trick going very one dimensional with the seam attack in the absence of stokes. The only way to get wickets is either rapid pace or wrist spin, it did OK but Plunkett and Stokes used to take wickets in those middle overs with cross seam back of a length and that’s where maxwell and mm clearly swung back the momentum yesterday.

Such fine lines in T20 cricket often leaves a lot of ifs and buts when looking back. I don’t nessecarily buy the ‘rusty’ angle. Australia were lightning in the field, took pretty much every chance they had, bowled pretty well and apart from Smith and Maxwell they scored some good runs. Truth is in just 20 overs with two evenly matched sides it doesn’t take much to look a fool one minute and a hero the next. Mitch Marsh has had his fair share of that over the years.

Have to say that looks a pretty formidable side in any country:

Buttler
Roy
Root
Morgan
Stokes
Bairstow
Ali
Jordan
Curran
Rashid
Archer

As an England fan IMO there are two factors which will dictate if we can win the t20 world cup in India and be classed a powerhouse. Number 1 is Ben Stokes and Number 2 is Joe Root. Ben Stokes brings much needed balance to the side and should come back in for wood not curran. Wood and Archer bowling in tandem is too similar and will go for big runs in powerplays in India. Stokes becomes 4th seamer alongside Curran, Archer and Jordan with Rashid and Ali. Secondly Joe Root must play. Yes Malan is in form but he has always struggled against spin and this was evident again in this series slog sweeping his wicket away twice. Root averages 35, plays spin very well, rotates the strike and still has a 120+ strike rate. You can forgive his lack of power when you surround him with Roy, Bairstow, Buttler, Morgan, Stokes and Ali.

As an England fan it’s so odd to watch. Archer has ambled in during the Pakistan series and bowled 85-88mph (I know it’s a test match so longer spells). But he’s looked grumpy, uninterested and laboursome for nearly the whole summer. Suddenly he faces the aussies with a white ball and is sprinting in and bowling rockets again. Question for England is how they keep him happy and motivated in the less inspiring games, maybe they need his best mate Chris Jordan as 12th man in every match.

The fine lines of international cricket. Still in my opinion two very closely matched sides but losing that first game from such a dominant position clearly knocked the stuffing out of Australia and further boosted England’s confidence. Momentum is a huge thing in sport and with the talent that England have in the limited overs format against what is clearly a rusty Aus batting lineup it’s going to be a real challenge to swing back that balance.

Great game! The sides are very closely matched. Both suffered and succeeded due to playing the extra bowler. As an England fan I still think Australia just edge it in t20 due to variation in their bowling attack with equally powerful batting lineups. Archer and Wood flinging down missiles at 150kph was fun to watch but clearly wasn’t the way to go on that pitch when you saw the success of Richardson’s variations. Either way it’s great entertainment and brilliant to have cricket back!

It will be interesting to see how we approach it Cari. No stokes or roy certainly changes the dynamic but Banton and Billings look more than equal replacements on current form. I’m not sure there is much tinkering to be done in the ODI side as it looks pretty set. But agree there may be a bit more playing around in the t20 team ahead of India next year, as the bowling doesn’t look as set with question marks over Jordan and Curran.

I don’t understand this hang up on averages in different countries, of course home country averages are going to be better. Shane Warne averaged 43 in India and Murali 36 in Australia does that remove them from the great spinners list. In terms of cross generation examples they are in most cases impossible. Trueman played on uncovered pitches in England and batsmen in them days didn’t wear helmets. Hardly fair to compare his generation to Andersons, both are undoubtedly greats in their own times. I’m admittedly not saying Anderson is the BEST EVER. I don’t think it’s possible to say who is, arguments could be made for them all Lillee, Marshall, McGrath, Akram etc. What can’t be denied is in recent years Jimmy stands head and shoulders above nearly every seamer on wickets, average and strike rate. In the last 10 years his stats are 462 wickets at 24, better than any other bowler for the last 20 years. So at the very worst you could argue for 2 decades he’s been the greatest seam bowler on the planet. Of all time probably not, but that’s a completely different and more complex debate.

Spot on. Only question is how will Wood’s body cope. I can see them actually using Anderson and Wood in rotation depending on the ground alongside Broad, Archer and Stokes. Don’t be surprised to seethe young spinner Virdi get fast tracked through if he gets on the winter tours. But we can forget about the bowlers if England batters don’t put big scores on the board. Only reason England won in 2011 was Cook scoring an insane number of runs and racking up huge totals to create scoreboard pressure.

It fascinates me this view that Anderson isn’t a great. Rather than get into conjecture about him v past greats. It’s simple… He’s managed his body to play more tests than the rest and developed his skills in the country where he plays nearly all his cricket to take more wickets than anyone else. As Neil says it doesn’t really matter what we say the history books don’t lie and they show him as the leading wicket taker of all time amongst seamers and I reckon that will do Jimmy just fine.

Great article Ronan and unfortunately for the most part I have to agree with you. However with so much cricket being played globally I think it’s about time we start picking groups of specialists for each format rather than trying to shoe horn good odi players into make shift test sides just on good form in another format.
Leave Roy, Buttler, Rashid and Hales for the short format and build a core of test specialists such as Burns, Broad, Anderson…yes that is where it stops currently. Then pad around those specialists with cross format top class players who can genuinely adapt their style such as Root, Stokes, Bairstow and Archer. I think exactly the same should happen with Aus. Finch, Starc and Carey for short format and Hazelwood, Lyon and Labs for long format. Drop in cross format players like Smith, Cummins and Wade and you’re not far off a solid team. The key is having a higher number of specialists in the 11 for that particular format rather than hoping a destructive dasher like Roy can keep out a swinging dukes ball from a test specialist like Hazelwood. Exactly the same way Cook looked all at sea trying to hit sixes in Englands old one day side. It’s certainly worked for England in the world cup so why not take the same approach into the test game..

As an England fan I hope Warner gets a score in this final innings because he’s a really warm, honest and likeable character who deserves nothing more than…to get his off peg ripped out the ground by Stuart Broad and sent back to Australia in floods of tears along with his useless gobby sidekick Matthew Wade.

I think this will be more convincing than any previous test. Yes it’s a surprise to see Roy dropped and Stokes move to 4 but equally Roy has scored zilch so few could argue with England going all in on their strengths which is bowling all rounders. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stokes still bowled and it gives us essentially 5 seamers to choose from. Not that it will make a scrap of difference Smith to score two hundreds and Australia to cruise to a deserved 3-1 series win. Question to pose for another article and another day: After Englands wc win should we advocate and promote specialists in each format rather than shoe horning Roy and Buttler into the test side like we used to do with Cook and Trott in the one dayers? Assume a similar thought for the Aus side with Starc and Warner…

Agree on the last point James – I think this defeat has really hit a nerve with a lot of former Aus players McGrath on BBC radio couldn’t muster much apart from blaming the umpire and Warne just went silent on Sky Sports. Ponting was the only one showing any kind of positivity towards England. It must be painful for them to take hence SW losing his rag at Prior and then in the same breath sledging Chris Adams calling him ‘nothing more than a club cricketer’. Amazing how the current crop of Aus players have been so much more sporting and dignified in defeat.

Still going to be 2 down for not many. Next two matches will be decided based on who scores more runs Root and Stokes or Smith and Labs.

Just didn’t think it was needed. Looks to everyone like he has been stewing since 2013/14 and waiting for the opportunity to give Lyon a kicking in public. I know Lyon made himself a target after coming out with those comments but surely it looks better to take the moral highground and just celebrate the win rather than tweeting stuff like that.

Poor taste from Prior but Warney needs to get back in his box, this entire series has been played in great spirits despite lots of controversial decisions, batsmen getting hit and the odd crazy event, yet the respect between the two teams has always been present (unlike the Warne/Ponting/Clarke generations). I would say 1-1 is about fair at this stage with two quality bowling attacks ripping through two flawed batting lineups. Both teams have played hard, tough but fair cricket with no over the mark sledging or comments in the media and this has had zero effect on the competitiveness of the cricket, in fact this has probably been one of the most entertaing ashes series in recent memory and a great advert for test cricket in general. Bring on Old Trafford…

You’re probably right Dunger, don’t need him anyway we’ve got Joe Denly…

Never realised that about Smith turns out his mum’s English and he moved to England at 17 to play County cricket. Technically he has as much right to play for us as Archer. Give it another two test matches he may want to switch over to the World Champions and Ashes holders. Don’t worry Smithy lad we will welcome you with open arms back to the homeland…

I’d say it depends heavily on how Smith plays Archer, Anderson and Broad. No weak link in that attack now and whilst England don’t have many runs in the tank I think with Root, Bairstow and Stokes hitting a tiny bit of form they may just have enough to sneak us over the line. Still going to be very much a battle of discipline with the bat in hand up against arguably two of the best seam bowling attacks in test cricket.

I think you’re spot on Mark. However the big question still is around Englands batting. We have absolutely no runs in the openers and whilst Root showed discipline in the 2nd innings he still looks short of form. Bairstow has showed glimpses whilst Buttler looks completely out of nick. If Anderson comes back in for Woakes that will leave Archer coming in at 8 and Broad at 9 which lengthens the tail. I still think Smith and Labs may just do enough to win at least one of the last two games and retain the ashes. Then again superman stokes could get another 15 wickets and score another two centuries and England win 3-1. I’m certainly looking forward to getting down to Old Trafford for day 3 fingers crossed for another epic!

15 overs with the second new ball went for 80 odd and swung the momentum

Pitch definitely improved no doubt but Aus lost this match in the 15 overs with the second new ball. Went for 80 odd runs with no accuracy. Momentum shifted and allowed Stokes to get out of the hole he had dug for 73 balls. Poor seam bowling or poor captaincy when Lyon had just got root with the old ball?

Got to love modern day test cricket, a guy from Barbados playing for England bowling an incredible bouncer to a South African born batsmen playing for Australia, on the same day that a New Zealand born all rounder scored a wonderful hundred.