5 England players who disappointed in the Ashes

The biggest series of the season is done. It ceased being a contest weeks ago, but we’ve at last reached the end of this less-than-exhilarating series. Australia were easily the superior side, and the 4-0 scoreline reflected that. England were significantly off the pace when it came to playing on Australian wickets: players like James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Moeen Ali are all terrific Test cricketers, but in conditions where they received virtually no assistance from the pitch, they struggled.

That being said, Australia did play very well. They were ruthless with the bat and refused to allow England an inch in virtually every game. They dominated at the end in Brisbane, at the end in Adelaide, all through Perth, the majority of Melbourne and the majority of Sydney. They were scarcely ever out of control and the result was never really in doubt. They ground England into the dust with huge innings, as Steve Smith and the rest of the middle order delivered gargantuan performances.

Here, we look at the biggest disappointments of the series:

Moeen Ali – 2/10

179 runs @ 19.8; HS: 40 – 0x100, 0x50; 5 wickets @ 115.0; 0x5WI; BBI: 2/74

Moeen Ali would like to quickly put this tour behind him. It was an absolute shocker. He would have been dropped for the Sydney Test if it weren’t for the injury to Chris Woakes, and rightly so. He looked toothless with the ball – the pitches didn’t help – and failed to be the controlling influence that England really needed. He was regularly flogged by Australia’s batsmen and looked bereft of confidence as the series progressed.

As England’s lead spinner, much, much more was required of him. With the bat, he experienced a similar regression. He was a bunny to the short ball – of which there were plenty – and was also owned by Nathan Lyon throughout the series. The off-spinner got him out six times in eight innings, and he couldn’t find the right balance between attack and defence.

England could have used some breezy knocks from Moeen to bolster their lacklustre totals, but he was completely out of his depth in Australia. He’ll bounce back for sure when he goes to New Zealand and next summer in England, but it was a chastening tour for Moeen nonetheless.

Chris Woakes – 4/10

114 runs @ 16.2; HS: 36 – 0x100, 0x50; 10 wickets @ 44.70, 0x5WI, BBI: 4/36

Woakes' bowling was below-par

Woakes was another victim of conditions – he’s a good seam bowler who, in the right conditions, can be a real handful. But on thankless Australian pitches, he found it a real hard graft, and had just 10 wickets from 4 games to show for his efforts.

His bowling in Adelaide, under lights, was great, as he got Steve Smith out for his lowest score of the series. But beyond that, it was a poor return from the all-rounder. He bowled with heart and effort but in reality, he’s probably not a skilled enough bowler to excel in Australian conditions. With the bat, more was expected from him. He made neat 20s but should have gone further. His series ended prematurely as a side-strain ruled him out of the Sydney Test.

James Vince – 5/10

242 runs @ 26.88; HS: 83 – 0x100, 2×50

James Vince was flashy but unconvincing

When James Vince was motoring along nicely at Brisbane, playing his sumptuous cover drives and genuinely looking like the player the selectors thought he could be, I was really surprised. He was batting great. But then he got run out and he reverted to typical James Vince: an aesthetically pleasing 15-40, filled with luscious drives and pulls, before having a brain fade and nicking off. It was so regular it ceased to be a meme and just became depressing.

Six of his nine innings ended with him edging a quick bowler to the keeper or cordon. Sometimes he got good balls, but other times it was just reckless, brainless cricket – his dismissal in the first innings at Sydney was unforgivable.

Alastair Cook – 5.5/10

376 runs @ 47; HS: 244* – 1×100, 0x50

Cook's stellar knock at Melbourne was overshadowed by his failures in the remaining matches

It was a difficult series to evaluate Alastair Cook. We must remember that as the 4th Test rolled around, people were questioning whether Cook was done. He seemed clueless against Mitchell Starc’s left-arm swing with the new ball, and hadn’t scored in excess of 37.

But then he came out at Melbourne and scored the highest ever score by an overseas batsman at the venue, with 244*. That seemed to reaffirm Cook’s place at the top of the order, and generously padded his stats. Without that knock, he would have scored just 132 runs @ 16.5.

Even though it was an all-time great knock, it doesn’t detract from the fact that he was decidedly average throughout this series. Hence, he gets a rating only slightly above average.

Joe Root – 6/10

378 runs @ 47.25; HS: 83 – 0x100, 5×50

Joe Root scored five half-centuries but could not convert a single one of them into a ton

Joe Root played really nicely for his runs but couldn’t convert 50s into 100s, which was so desperately needed by his team. As one of the senior batsmen and captain, it was Root’s responsibility to score big runs to guide England’s innings.

Imagine if he turned his 51 at the Gabba in the 2nd innings to a 100, or his 83 at Sydney, or his 67 at Adelaide – indeed, at Adelaide, a hundred could well have taken England to a win. It became a standing joke of sorts (Joe Root walks into a church and says he wants to become a Christian, but the priest says ‘Sorry Joe, you can’t convert) but it was actually pretty damaging to England’s chances.

That being said, he was serene at the crease and was consistently their best batsman on tour – if he had converted the 50s into 100s, then we may have been discussing the player of the series. His captaincy veered from inspired to lifeless, particularly on flatter tracks as Australia totted up the runs, though his limited resources compared to Steve Smith's account for this.

He showed good resilience coming out to bat on the 5th day at Sydney after spending the night in hospital for severe dehydration, but couldn’t save the game.