England great Darren Gough has congratulated Ben Stokes’ men on their win in the fourth Ashes Test, while lamenting the poor overall quality being served up in the current contest compared to past Ashes tours.
“This has to go down as probably one of the worst Ashes series I’ve seen for lots of reasons,” Gough commented on X after the two-day finish in Melbourne that saw the Boxing Day Test finish comfortably before line honours were decided in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
“The main one—13 days cricket for 4 Test matches,” he added.
Beyond the premature finishes, a simple look at the series statistics adds weight to Gough’s comments, most notably the underwhelming quality of batting performances being served up by the top orders of both sides.
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To date, only two players have been able to average over 35—Australia’s Travis Head and Alex Carey—with a modest four centuries and 16 half centuries registered across both sides in four Tests.
This compares starkly to the 2010-11 Ashes series, won 3-1 by England under captain Andrew Strauss, where a whopping nine players averaged over 35, with 12 centuries and 27 half centuries coming from the five matches.
With the reasons for the alarming drop-off in batting performances well documented and widely debated—Greg Chappell’s piece in the Sydney Morning Herald is well worth a read if you haven’t yet done so—there can be no doubt Test cricket has fundamentally changed in the past decade.
Whether it has changed for the better?
That is a different matter entirely as former greats like Darren Gough will no doubt continue to attest of an Ashes series unlikely to linger long in the memory—certainly not for good reasons anyway.
2025-26 Ashes, Australia vs. England, Leading Run Scorers after Fourth Test
| Player | Dismissals | Total Runs | Average |
1 | Travis Head Australia | 8 | 437 | 54.62 |
2 | Alex Carey Australia | 6 | 291 | 48.50 |
3 | Zak Crawley England | 8 | 256 | 32 |
4 | Joe Root England | 7 | 234 | 33.42 |
5 | Harry Brook England | 7 | 232 | 33.14 |
Source: ESPN crininfo