With two wins and one match drawn, Australia have retained the Ashes.
It was probably more significant to do it as the tourists, although few would doubt that they would have passed up a win had the 209 Ashes series been played in Australia.
It was the first win for Australia in England during an Ashes series in England since 2001.
The two sides will play out the series, after all, the venues are reserved and the tickets printed, but all England can hope for is to gain some measure of respectability.
The captain does not go down with his ship these days, nor fall on his sword as was once the custom in a distant past era, so England captain Joe Root told the media that he is contemplating steeping down, despite two unsuccessful Ashes attempts as the leader of the Pom XI.
“I definitely want to carry on as captain,” Root said. “I have been given a fantastic opportunity to captain the Test side and will continue to work very hard at doing my best at that.”
Cheerio. Pip pip, and all that, goes the saying.
England did not play badly and nothing Root did deserves to call his decision-making into question.
England and Australia were evenly matched for the 2019 Ashes and the result could have easily gone the other way without requiring too much in the way of tortured scenarios.
Root is being made something of a scapegoat, as he did not produce runs in accordance with expectations.
Objectively, though, that was the case for both squads, as the attack seemed to hold sway throughout the first four Tests of the series.
Root did acknowledge that having the world’s best Test batsman in Steve Smith was a deciding factor.
“If you take Steve Smith out, it would be very similar for both teams,” Root said.
England did manage to take Smith out, but only temporarily and not in the manner to which Root was probably alluding.
