The hard truths that show England will struggle to win the Ashes

For all the courage of Chris Woakes, the class of Joe Root and the outlandish skill of Harry Brook, a memorable final Test between England and India at the Oval came with the reality that Bazball will land in Australia without a major victory of any sort to show for it.

England coach Brendon McCullum and his injured captain Ben Stokes – who did all the pre- and post-game media in place of the anonymous stand-in skipper Ollie Pope – spoke floridly of the 2-2 encounter against Shubman Gill’s side as among the best Test series they had lived through.

“From a cricket fan’s point of view, 2-2 is probably fair,” Stokes said. “Two very good teams who have thrown everything at each other and left everything out there. We obviously would have loved to get a series win, but it wasn’t meant to be.

“There’s a little bit of frustration there as well, but as a massive advocate of this format and for Test cricket as a whole, this has certainly been one of those series that could hopefully keep off the narrative around ‘Test cricket is dying’.”

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