As someone who loves Test cricket, to see what has happened this summer and to see how much the fans have enjoyed it, I want to say to both teams: thank you very much, you have done us all proud.
Just like with Stuart Broad’s retirement, you always want to leave people wanting more. And that is what this Test series and the last day at the Oval has done for me. I am not walking away thinking, ‘Phew, thank goodness that’s done, we are all knackered, we could all do with a break’. I am walking away thinking, ‘When is the next one of these?’.
For England to be able to put in that sort of performance on day five of the fifth Test, with the series still on the line, speaks volumes for them and the backroom staff. It is an Ashes series. It drains you more than any other series. So, the level of mental and physical fitness they demonstrated was extraordinary.
Yes, they may have been slightly undercooked for the first game, but they were ready as the series went on. They got better in every game and they were the stronger side in the last three matches.
Ben Stokes got his captaincy spot on on Monday. He got a bit lucky with the ball change because the older ball was doing nothing. On Sunday, it was all about reverse swing, but with the harder and newer ball on Monday, it was all about orthodox swing.
England and Australia should be congratulated for producing a thrilling Ashes series
Stuart Broad wanted to go out on a high and he certainly managed to achieve that objective
And Stokes got it absolutely right first up. There was no emotion in thinking, ‘Oh, it’s swinging, we are going to give Jimmy Anderson a bowl’. In those conditions, with the lights on and the newer ball, it was about bowling the best two bowlers for now. Not for the last 20 years, for now. And for now, those two best bowlers were Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes. They were absolutely brilliant and Moeen Ali bowled beautifully as well.
Stokes was also right to stick Broad on at the end. He didn’t do it because of emotion or for the fairytale ending. He did it because Broad is the best bowler to get that wicket of the left-hander.
I also thought Broad got his retirement announcement right on Saturday because you know with someone like that, even with two days of a Test match to go, he is not going to check out.
He is going to be switched on until the last delivery he bowls and that’s exactly how it turned out. The last ball he faces, he hits for six. The last ball he bowls, he gets a wicket. He is just a phenomenal cricketer and a unique character. He said he wanted to walk off on a high and he has absolutely done that.
It was fair that England won here, 2-2 is a fair result. I am sure they won’t look back. They will just look at what they’ve done for Test cricket. But if they had lost here and it was 3-1 they may have looked back and been a bit disappointed.
There were periods earlier in the series where they made mistakes because they were undercooked. They dropped catches, didn’t quite get their batting tempo right in the second innings at Edgbaston and in the first at Lord’s.
But it was Stokes who changed the mindset midway through the series. Not with his words. His words, at least externally, had the same message. But his cricket, and his batting in particular, was an absolute change in message —almost to say to his team, ‘Come on, we’ve just gone slightly the wrong side of the line of how positive you can be’.
It was just a little tweak. But look at how Harry Brook played as the series progressed after Lord’s. Look at how Zak Crawley just changed his technique and looked at his game. Look at how Jonny Bairstow went about it.
Ben Stokes got his captaincy spot on and changed the mindset midway through the series
Stokes brought out the best in players such as Zak Crawley, who changed his game effectively
Ashes debutant Harry Brook also made a significant impact as series progressed after Lord’s
I get it when Stokes says we are here to entertain. I see that Test cricket needs looking after and to make sure that the scenes we saw here are translated around the world. I do see the bigger picture. But I’m also someone who has seen England get hammered by Australia and if you get the chance to beat them, to keep them down, you have to try and take it.
So for me, what they’ve done in the last two Tests has been perfect. They have entertained, they have played a brilliant brand. But they have tweaked their game just so slightly and they have also won. And winning, as we saw with the scenes here at the Oval, is still important.
The person who typifies that the most is Broad. The reason Broad has been the cricketer he has been is because he wants to win.
I was watching him on Monday celebrating some of those wickets and he was like a 21-year-old playing in his first Ashes. He was running in, hugging his team-mates, leaping up and down, throwing his floppy hat onto the floor. That is the behaviour of someone who wants to win — and that is why it was so fitting that he got England over the line.
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