Would this composite Ashes XI beat England or Australia?

The Ashes are done and a sense of normality is slowly returning to the world.

In unpacking how it unfolded, let’s take a moment to pick our team of the tournament – which as it turns out has more England players in it than we initially thought it would.

It probably goes to show that while England has a number of excellent players, Australia are much better as a team, which, if you think about it, probably goes a long way to explaining why South Africa are World Test Champions even though they have very few star players.

1. Travis Head (Australia)

Along with Mitchell Starc, Head was the undoubted success story of the Ashes. Promoted up the order in the first Test he strafed the England bowling to all parts as Australia won inside two days.

The Perth Test was crazy and, to be fair, if Head had failed and England had managed a few early wickets the series could have looked decidedly different.

But Head didn’t fail. In fact, he scarcely failed all series as he ended the leading scorer with 629 runs (more than 200 ahead of the next best batter) at an average of 62.90.

2. Zak Crawley (England)

There are not many players who divide opinion like Crawley does. To some he is a perpetual struggler to others he is a gritty hero. While Crawley may seem like an unlikely pick, his presence in this team is perhaps an indication of the lack of opening quality in either side.

Australia struggled to find a settled combination at the top of the order while for England Ben Duckett never really set the world alight.

And so it transpires that with a top score of 85, and a total of 273 runs at a modest average of 27.30, Crawley gets the nod ahead of Duckett and Jake Weatherald.

3. Joe Root (England)

The number one test batsman in the world Root showed his class in a battling England side as he finally rid himself of the monkey that has been on his back for almost a decade – he bagged a Test century in Australia.

And having struck one, he went on to hit a second as he ended the series in second place on the run scorers list with only Travis Head ahead of him.

While number three is not his preferred position, we have to find a way to include both Root and Steve Smith in the side.

Root gets the nod at three ahead of a player like Marnus Labuschagne who will undoubtedly be disappointed to finish the series with an average of only 28.77.

Jacob Bethall shone at three in the final Test, but we aren’t going to give him the nod on the strength of one performance. His time is yet to come, and for England his emergence was a big positive from an otherwise disappointing Australian summer.

4. Steve Smith (Australia)

Vertigo saw him miss a Test, but aside from that Smith was at his awkward best with a highest score of 138 and an average of 57.20.

While he didn’t manage as many runs as Root, his average for the series is 13 higher than Roots which is why we have given him the number four spot. Smith is also the skipper of our side.

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5. Harry Brook (England)

The England man is ranked as the second-best Test cricket batsman in the world and as such he will probably feel that he under delivered in Australia.

Brook showed plenty of positives as he managed to hit 358 runs (the third most of any batter in the series). But a highest score of 84 and an average of 39.77 are below par for a player of his calibre.

That said, he still makes our team ahead of Cameron Green (who started the series there for Australia) and Usman Khwaja (who finished the series there). Brook didn’t just outscore the Australian duo, he also averaged much better than them as well.

6. Alex Carey (Australia)

Another star of the series Carey was impeccable behind the stumps, but he also shone with the bat.

His competitor for the keeper’s gloves and the number six spot was Jamie Smith who may well have experienced a career ending series as he fully embraced the ‘Baz Ball’ philosophy and came up short time after time.

Carey, in contrast finished the series with two 50s and a 100 and an average of 46.14 – the fourth highest scorer and the fourth best average as well.

His ability to stand up to bowlers like Scott Boland and Michael Neser added pressure to the England batting as they looked to play their expansive game but found themselves forced to remain crease bound.

7. Ben Stokes (England)

A fighter to the bitter end, Stokes is another who will be disappointed with how he failed to back up his pre-series talk with on field performance.

That said he still weighed in with some valuable runs and delivered admirably with the ball. He produced a top score for the series of 83 while 15 wickets and a best of five for 23 are a very solid return for a player who was England’s fifth bowler.

8. Mitchell Starc (Australia)

Player of the series and the outstanding performer. Shouldering a heavy load in the absence of Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins, Starc seemed to relish the opportunity to bowl more and take on additional responsibility.

He was relentlessly quick, unerringly accurate and none of the England batters ever looked comfortable against him.

He finished the series with 31 wickets (that’s an average of six per Test) at an average of 19.93. The next most prolific bowler was Brydon Carse who managed 22 scalps. Starc was simply immense.

He had a couple of handy knocks with the bat as well just to underscore his superhero status.

9. Josh Tongue (England)

He didn’t play all the games, but he stepped up when called upon, finishing with 18 wickets from three games and a best performance of five for 45.

England arrived in Australia with plenty of noise being made about their pace attack which was said to be the fastest ever collective unit since the dawn of speed measurement.

But speed frequently equates to breakability and along the way they lost Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson. Tongue stepped in and stepped up and he earns his spot in this side with an average of 20.11.

10. Nathan Lyon (Australia)

This team needs a spinner and even though he missed a game before getting injured, Nathan Lyon is the only option here.

The veteran spinner played just two games and managed five wickets – which was enough to see him move past Glenn McGrath and into sixth spot on the list of all-time Test wicket takers.

Lyon has proven his quality for Australia on countless occasions and although his opportunities were limited this time round, with an average of 31.40 he still took his wickets at more than 20 runs a scalp better than England’s ‘spinner’ Will Jacks.

11. Scott Boland (Australia)

Mr Consistent, Boland has shown himself to be a wonderful replacement for Hazelwood and Cummins. Not as quick as Starc but accurate and imposing, Boland was the perfect foil for Starc with 20 wickets at an average of 24.95.

Boland himself may be slightly disappointed with his overall performance given that he came into the series with the lowest career bowling average in more than 100 years – but even after the series he still has a career average of 18.58 (which is the 12th best average of all time).

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