Australia were ripe for the picking. England failed to lay a glove on them

Let’s go back a couple of months and lay out some doomsday Ashes scenarios for the first three Tests.

Let’s say that Australia’s two best players, Pat Cummins and Steve Smith, won’t appear together in any of them. Let’s add that another cornerstone player, Josh Hazlewood, won’t play in the series at all. Let’s imagine that neither Cummins nor Nathan Lyon takes a wicket in the rubber until the third Test and then do not play again in the series. Let’s imagine that Smith, so often the bane of England, is withdrawn from the pivotal third Test at half-past the 11th hour.

Pat Cummins hugs injured teammate Nathan Lyon while Travis Head waits to do the same after Australia’s win in the third Ashes Test in Adelaide.Credit: Getty Images

Let’s posit that Australia’s top scorer after three Tests is not Travis Head, the gung-ho No.5, but Travis Head, the emergency opener with all the responsibility that position asks. Let’s make it that Australia’s next highest scorer is the wicketkeeper.

Let’s consider that the first two Tests are played on grounds that should suit England’s hyper-charged gameplan and the third on a deck tailor-made for a team with accomplished batting down to No.10. Let’s say that Joe Root already has a century in the series, his first in this country, and Zak Crawley has made some good runs, and Jofra Archer has a five-for, and Ben Stokes has a five-for and a few runs, too.

Then let’s record with wide eyes that somehow,

visit website