After a disappointing performance in the Ashes series at the beginning of the year, England’s Test team is back in winning form. Brendon McCullum’s people were no-nonsense
They suffered a 4-1 defeat on the soil of their biggest rivals, Australia, after suffering crushing defeats in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney earlier this year. However, they managed to achieve their first win on Australian soil in 15 years Fourth Test in MelbourneAnd it seems like he has carried it forward in his return home.
England returned to winning ways
In their first Test after a crushing Ashes defeat, they faced highly-rated New Zealand at Lord’s and immediately looked like a team capable of competing with the best. Gus Atkinson was running fast, Ollie Robinson was probing the outside edge, and Josh Tongue was making the ball do things batsmen couldn’t account for.
Kiwi team lost by 115 runs and England lost confidently return to victory.
With two Tests remaining in the series, online betting sites now make England favorites to win the series. Latest possibilities from Lucky Rebel Sportsbook Give the hosts a slim shot at 4/25 to clinch the series, leaving the visitors at 6/1. But everyone in the press box is now silently asking themselves whether this is a relief, or a genuine turning of a corner.
England have been here before – three times, to be frank, as they have had to rebuild after humiliation down the road – and an Ashes defeat has a way of revealing far more about the true state of a side than the immediate series defeat. The last three disasters. Three completely different stories about what happened next.
2013–14: 5–0 whitewash – followed by Sri Lanka in England
Mitchell Johnson’s relentless pace attack tore apart England’s batting line-up in five Test matches in 2013/14. Then, three weeks after the last wicket fell, the ECB completed a 5–0 whitewash Kevin Pietersen’s central contract canceled. England’s all-time leading run-scorer across all formats. Gone, in an act of institutional self-destruction that told you everything about how terrified the corridors of power had become. Andy Flower went with him and Alastair Cook somehow held on to the captaincy.
Sri Lanka quietly reached dangerous heights under Angelo Mathews. England, under a regime that already felt makeshift, should have handled it comfortably. He didn’t.
The first Test at Lord’s was a miserable draw, with the hosts unable to bowl out the visitors on the final day, with Sri Lanka fighting tooth and nail to retain their last wicket and avoid a draw. Then Headingley. Moeen Ali scored an unbeaten 108 in only his second Test, but it was not enough. Shaminda Iranga edged Jimmy Anderson with the final ball of the innings, giving the visitors a famous 100-run win and sealing the fact that England still had a lot of work to do.
2017–18: 4–0 loss – next to New Zealand
Steve Smith forced England to surrender in the 2017/18 Ashes series. His 687 series runs forever frustrated the England attack, despite bright spots such as Dawid Malan’s maiden Test century at the WACA, as his prodigious talent foiled his plans. The route was prolific without changing the beginning; Cook struggled badly; Ben Stokes’ attack after the Bristol nightclub incident, again and again, seemed exaggerated.
After India’s crushing defeat, England’s second consecutive 4-0 defeat abroad
2016-17- Delivered a verdict that was difficult to ignore. And yet the ECB decided to do exactly that.
Root retained the captaincy. Trevor Bayliss remained as coach. There was no overhaul, no reset, no inquiry into what went massively wrong. England immediately put the pressure on New Zealand for the two-Test series, leaving everyone with the understanding that the damage was limited. No structural changes, same management, and a team in urgent need of something to stave off their winter – anything.
They did not find anything. In the opening day-night Test in Auckland, England were all out for 58 in 20.4 overs – Trent Boult took 6/32 and Tim Southee 4/25, with five batsmen out for ducks as the pink ball spun badly under lights. New Zealand won by an innings and 49 runs. In the second Test in Christchurch, Neil Wagner’s 103-ball rearguard and Ish Sodhi’s 168-ball resistance brought England very close to equalising, but the tourists fell two wickets short. The winter ended without a Test series win in nine overseas attempts.
2021-22: 4-0 defeat – West Indies next
Travis Head claimed the Compton-Miller Medal in 2021/22 after announcing himself to the world as a genuine superstar with an opening day century at the Gabba. Root heroically scored 322 runs without the support that could have converted his brilliance into victory. Malan was out after scoring 244 runs and Stokes was out after scoring 236 runs. The bowling was excellent throughout. England took the series 4–0 after losing 10 wickets for 78 runs in Hobart, the draw at the SCG being the only moment of real composure all winter.
Ashley Giles, Chris Silverwood and eventually Joe Root all lost their positions after another defeat Down Under, with Paul Collingwood taking interim charge for the West Indies tour. James Anderson and Stuart Broad were ruled out of the first Test; Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed – top-order criminals throughout the winter – were dropped. Root captained England in the Caribbean before stepping down. What followed was, structurally, the most honest response given by English cricket in almost a decade.
West Indies won the third and deciding Test in Grenada by ten wickets to clinch the Caribbean series 1–0. Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales shared 11 wickets apiece after the first two Tests ended in disciplined but inconclusive draws, and Kraigg Brathwaite scored 341 runs in the entire series.
