Australia retained the urn after Manchester Test ended in a draw due to relentless rain.
After conceding a huge first-innings lead of 275 to England, the visitors were struggling at 214/5 in their second essay but they were helped to a draw by incessant rainfall throughout the final day of the Test match.
Australia may have been benefitted from the Manchester draw, but former England captains Michael Atherton and Michael Vaughan reckon that the Pat Cummins-led Australian side looked scared, rattled and petrified in the penultimate Test.
“Rarely have Australia been so outplayed as they were over the first three days of this game, and England’s brilliant and bold cricket deserved a more just outcome,” Atherton wrote in The Times.
“Not since Ian Botham at his peak in the 1980s has an Australian team looked as rattled as they did in the field here,” he added.
Vaughan also echoed Atherton’s viewpoint, saying that it was a lucky escape for the tourists.
“Australia were timid, scared and petrified of this England team all week in Manchester and played for rain. Australia were rattled: I can’t remember saying that before. They will know that only rain saved them. It ranks as one of the luckiest escapes I can remember,” he wrote in The Telegraph.
“If England play anything like this again, they will win at the Oval and level the series. They will not have retained the Ashes, but might just have been the better team across the series.”
The 2005 Ashes-winning captain further stated that England paid the price for their mistakes in the first two Tests.
“But they can have no complaints about Australia retaining the Ashes, and this series not getting the grandstand finish it deserved at the Oval,” he wrote.
“England completely dismantled Australia to a point where they were unable to deliver the basics.
“They were psychologically affected by the Bazball juggernaut. Australia forgot that in Test cricket if your best ball gets hit, don’t go away from bowling your best ball.
“If England dance down outside off and whip it through mid-wicket, don’t stop bowling that ball. But England’s attacking instincts led to Australia suffering from amnesia.”
Irrespective of the outcome of Ashes 2023, Atherton said England’s Bazball approach has delivered a truly thrilling contest and the country has a team to be proud of.
“There are those who will point to the missed opportunities at Edgbaston, especially, which mean the Ashes remain in Australia’s grasp for another 2½ years. Instead of that lingering regret being the strongest reaction, think first where England were two winters ago in Hobart, a shell of a side that played with no conviction or belief,” Atherton wrote.
“The transformation since has been remarkable and even though “Bazball” will not get its affirmation with an Ashes win, the country has a team of which to be proud.”
The fifth and final Test will be held at The Oval from July 27 to July 31.