Ashes Re-cap: England claim unthinkable Ashes victory

England’s annihilation of Australia in the last two Tests has been breathtaking. To sweep aside any international team in such a manner is incredible but do so against the Old Enemy was unthinkable only a couple of weeks ago.

Michael Clarke’s men were clear favourites entering the series and, having appeared undercooked at Cardiff, they reaffirmed their status with the world’s number one batsman Steven Smith leading them to an emphatic victory at Lord’s.

The English bowlers were nullified on a flat track in North London and, with the series now down to a three-game shootout, all eyes were on the ground staff at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge to ensure home advantage would at least keep the Aussies in sight.

Two Tests later and the only apparent weakness in the touring side, that being their ageing team, had been fully exposed by an England side whose main failing of youthfulness at the start of the summer is now their greatest asset.

Australia, despite their age or perhaps because of it, seemed strong in all departments and England seemed too reliant on the bowling of their two opening bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

Those two were indeed inspirational, with the latter’s 8-15 at Trent Bridge sealing his place in Ashes folklore. But there now appears a plethora of options in the bowling ranks and in fact a problem of who to leave out if Anderson is fit at The Oval. They may even rest their all-time leading wickettaker.

The return flight Down Under, meanwhile, will see a good number of fine players hanging up their baggy green caps and none more so than the captain.

Clarke was tearful as he confirmed in front of a packed Trent Bridge that his time would be up after one final Test, but perhaps the only surprise was the fact he would risk the ignominy of a third thrashing to end his career.

The Aussies are clearly in disarray, and Yahoo’s Secret Cricketer points out that the dressing room will not be a positive place.

A fresh start is required but where do coach Darren Lehmann and the selectors find the depth that was lacking, particularly when things were going so wrong in the last two matches.

Chris Rogers, one of the positives of a wretched series with the bat, had already announced his international retirement; Adam Voges will surely have his forced on him, and the pressure is about to heap on Smith as he is favourite to take up the captaincy while leading a new look top order.

There were few positives in the series for Australia. Even their feared bowling line up, hit by the injury-forced retirement of Ryan Harris, only exposed England’s youthful batsmen once in the second Test. Their defence will be that they never had the chance to build pressure due to the lack of runs.

England now have an Ashes winning batting line up and a chance to put behind them the selection errors in the West Indies that appeared as though they would come back to haunt them in this series.

They can now back Adam Lyth at The Oval to bat with more freedom while rebuilding and, dare one use the phrase, reintegrating names like Gary Ballance and Sam Robson when required. The departure of Ian Bell, be it sooner or later, doesn’t seem to leave anywhere near the same kind ofwhole that it may have and it seems a lifetime since the sacking of Kevin Pietersen.

County cricket may come in for a lot of criticism, and at times rightly so as it’s scheduling hasn’t moved with the modern era of sport, but it is producing a great number of options, which England will now be afforded the time to mould for the step up to the intensity of the Test arena. The domestic set up can in the meantime be patted on the back for what it has achieved whilst carrying out a restructure to closer replicate the international stage.

Another heavy defeat in this series, following the previous whitewash Down Under would have left a desperate scramble to get some of these talents up to speed for the next Ashes campaign, and it would indeed have been the counties to bear the brunt of criticism for not preparing the likes of Lyth for the step up.

Instead it is Australia that must look to Sheffield Shield cricket and ask why a team that barely a decade ago were able to leave out players that would have walked into any other side in the world are now scratching around the bottom of what appears quite a bare cupboard.