Ashes 2019: Four reasons why England have failed to regain the urn

Tim Paine became the first Australia captain since Steve Waugh in 2001 to have won the prestigious Ashes urn on English soil after winning the fourth Test at Old Trafford by a handsome 185 runs.

Australia took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series and although there is one more Test to go at the Oval, England can only level the series and that will mean that the Ashes trophy will remain with the men from Down Under.

The scoreline doesn't tell the actual story of the series because the visitors have clearly been the better side so far. If you take out that one magic innings of Ben Stokes at Headingley, England might have been 3-0 down.

In a contest which was expected to be lot more closer, especially with two relatively fragile batting line-ups, England's struggles have surprised a few experts and fans alike.

Let’s analyse a little bit more to understand why England have found the going tough so far in this series.

#4. James Anderson’s injury

England’s most experienced fast bowler James Anderson was expected to cause havoc in the Australian batting order as he always has done in English conditions with the Dukes ball.

When the right arm swing bowler completed his 4th over of the opening spell of the series at Edgbaston, Anderson felt a niggle in his calf muscle and went into the dressing room for medical attention and that was the last we saw him bowl in the entire series.

It was a huge blow for the home side right at the start of the series from which they are yet to recover and put up a complete bowling effort against a batting side which is fragile if you take out the name of Steven Smith.

Also see – World Test Championship Schedule 2019e

#3. Root’s promotion to No. 3

England’s Test captain and one of the best batsman of this generation Joe Root was doing pretty well at his customary No 4 position in the longer format.

The right-hander decided to promote himself to No. 3 ahead of the series in order to strengthen the top-order which was looking very weak. However, Root has struggled to cope with the new ball because he has to come in early on most occasions due to the poor form of openers.

Root’s technical glitches on the front foot early on in the innings have been found out by the Aussie quicks and have made life difficult for the English captain.

It will now be interesting to see if he decides to go back to his usual No. 4 for the final Test or persist for one more time at the promoted batting position.

#2. England’s back-up bowlers

It's the collective bowling group that will win Test matches, especially fast bowlers will have to hunt in packs in a five-match series played over six weeks.

After Anderson’s loss, young tearaway Jofra Archer was included to partner Stuart Broad and has had tremendous success so far in his short Test career.

But the problem for England has been their follow-up bowlers after the opening bursts of Broad and Archer. In each Test, these two new ball bowlers have been getting the Australian top order pretty cheaply only for the others to ease the pressure off with some lacklustre bowling.

Craig Overton was preferred to Chris Woakes as the third seamer in Old Trafford but he was not at all someone who could run through sides at Test match level.

In the spin department, off spinner Moeen Ali was dropped after the first Test. Left-arm spin option of Jack Leach was preferred thereafter but he is once again a bowler who can hold one end up rather than be the aggressor.

On the other hand, Australia have been blessed to have 5 fast bowlers in top form and full fitness. The selectors and coach were so confident that they decided to rest Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for the first Test at Edgbaston.

#1. Steven “run machine” Smith

Steve Smith's been super-human in this Ashes.

Steve Smith was one of the three players who was banned for a year due to the ball tampering saga in South Africa. He came into this series with no Test cricket for the best part of 18 months.

As expected, Smith was welcomed to the crease with lots of ‘boos’ from the hostile English crowd but he obliged them with hundreds in both the innings which helped Australia win at a venue that was not their happy hunting ground.

Steven Smith looked like he was never away from Test cricket as he went about his trademark 'shuffle across the stumps' and other mannerisms. He arrived to Test cricket with a bang.

After suffering a heavy blow on his head while facing upto Jofra Archer at Lords, Smith had to sit out the third Test after failing concussion tests. Ironically Australia lost the Test when Smith had to sit out.

It was expected to be another big battle with Archer at Old Trafford and the whole world was watching to see how the Australian would take the challenge. Smith was just as good as he tackled the short stuff pretty well and in the end went on to score a double hundred in the first innings.

If you take out Smith’s contribution with the bat for Australia, this series could have been a lot closer.