England’s summer ended with a disappointing defeat by Sri Lanka at The Oval but there have been plenty of positives to take from two series victories and an overall win record of 5-1.
A crushing 3-0 victory over West Indies was followed up with a 2-1 success over Sri Lanka that was carried out without captain Ben Stokes, or opener Zak Cawley, because of injury.
In their absence, others cemented their place among the England team while others wilted under the pressure of Test cricket. And while overseas tours to Pakistan and New Zealand now follow this winter, all eyes are on the visit of India next summer.
Telegraph Sport ranks the importance of every player to feature this summer with one eye on next year’s blockbuster series.
Desperate to succeed, when given the role of opener in Zak Crawley’s absence, he over-interpreted his brief to put pressure on Sri Lanka. His wild hitting at the Oval was an excess of a virtue. But it would be unfair to judge him when so out of position. For the future he will resume as the first-choice understudy when a middle-order batsman is ill or injured – or maybe as a No7 in Pakistan, given his off-spin.
Summer rating: 4/10
Not many players have been dropped during the Stokes-McCullum era but Potts had to be to make way for the Josh Hull experiment. In his two Tests, with his five wickets, he was a willing fourth-seamer workhorse – and he will have his moments in that role occasionally abroad – but England will aspire to something more.
Summer rating: 5
A summer of diminishing returns. To be recommended: watching a few videos of Sir Vivian Richards. Like Brook, he would play shots and seek to dominate bowlers from the outset, but once he dominated them, Richards would not push his luck, he would rein himself in, block and take singles for an hour, then go again when the bowlers had been completely subdued. Brook keeps them hoping. And if he is going to throw his hands at balls wide of off-stump he has to get his front foot closer to the line, not planting it down the track. As it stands, he has not scored runs in Australia and wide third man – as at the Oval – will be waiting in the next Ashes.
Summer rating: 6
Pope had a grand view of Pathum Nissanka, player of the Oval Test, of similar height, who demonstrated exactly how the stand-in England skipper should go about his business at No3 if he wants to become consistent – away from the Oval. Nissanka is balanced, poised, compact, trusts his defence, not desperate to play shots, confident enough in his ability to score at a run a ball. England supporters have reason to hope that Pope’s experience of captaincy, in any event, will give him the confidence to be less frenetic at the start of his innings, and to play patiently through the first 25 balls of his innings, and shed the tag of being England’s most inconsistent No3.
Summer rating: 6
Australia’s Brett Lee – one of the all-time quickest – says that bowling fast is all about your leading arm, not your bowling arm. The leading arm has to reach for the sky then snap down into the form of a hand-shake: that is what brings the bowling arm over more quickly. Hull has all the attributes to bowl early 80s mph effectively and swing it. To push 90 mph he has to stop that leading arm splaying out almost horizontally in front of him in delivery, and do the handshake. Encouraging start. Can equal other England left-armers, but to become the first to take 100 Test wickets he needs to listen to Uncle Brett.
Summer rating: 6
It was a pity that Ricky Ponting arrived at the Oval to join the television commentary team for this Test, ahead of the white-ball series against Australia. As the best batting analyst his report back to Pat Cummins on England’s uniquely attacking left-handed opener would be gold-dust. Duckett left one ball in the Sri Lanka series, according to Sky data, so how best to exploit this eagerness? Right arm round the wicket, and full – nothing short to pull or wide to cut – might be the gist. Will Duckett adjust by the next Ashes to make match-shaping, not modest, contributions?
Summer rating: 6
Although his summer haul of 15 wickets sounds nothing special, England can be absolutely certain that he is going to be their No1 spinner in Australia – their answer to Nathan Lyon, purveyor of off-breaks with loads of over-spin. But to be the definitive answer he will have to bowl a more aggressive line than he did much of this summer: he needs a field with four on the offside, not three, so he can bowl just outside off-stump. He had one field-day at Trent Bridge against West Indies but no more than the odd wicket elsewhere when he bowled defensively on middle and leg.
Summer rating: 7
In the absence of Mark Wood, he surprised batsmen with his pace at the start of a spell and booked his trips to Pakistan and New Zealand before Christmas. He does not do much with a new ball – or at any rate England kept him back until the ball had aged – but he does enough with an old one to have quite a future, even though he has had to wait until his thirties for his break-out season.
Summer rating: 7
The Wizard performed yet another trick when he popped up as England’s attack-leader in succession to James Anderson and conjured up 24 wickets at only 20 this summer. He had his outswinger on a string, and surprised several batsmen, as well as Jamie Smith as he dived down legside, with his inswinger. All brilliant progress for a 35-year-old, and he has to go to Pakistan now, with a longer view to the pink-ball Test in Brisbane. Unfortunately, given the bowling demands, his runs at No7 dried up (only 46 against Sri Lanka) but his fielding remained top-notch.
Summer rating: 8
Everyone’s value increases when they are out of a side, but Crawley’s even more so after he broke a finger. He might not have been missed so much if Keaton Jennings had replaced him as opener, but Crawley’s value rocketed when Lawrence took over: Crawley’s driving from ball one seemed altogether more controlled, less boat-rocking. A nice little point for the future: Brook filled in flawlessly as second slip in Crawley’s absence but won’t Crawley reclaim his place there?
Summer rating: 7
The devil had his way when Root’s aggregate for this summer was ended at 666 by a perfect inswinger from Vishwa Fernando. Sir Alastair Cook could smile too in that his record for the most Test runs for England will survive a few more weeks, even though Root has poached his record for most Test centuries with his 34th. He has been a model Spad for Ben Stokes and Pope… but it will still rankle that he could not make more than 25 runs at the Oval. He should not beat himself up: he had been a pallbearer at Graham Thorpe’s funeral before the game on the eve of the Test in what was an emotionally charged week.
Summer rating: 9
Smith, in his debut Test series, was offered alarmingly frequent opportunities to prove himself as a batsman and at every important moment he found a way to score. After playing himself in calmly, and assessing, he could flick a switch into power-hitting mode. His wicketkeeping was calm too, and steady, but should he become a specialist batsman? His technique is superb, better than any of England’s other batsmen except Root.
Summer rating: 9
The outstanding debutant of this or any other summer with his 34 wickets at 20 and his maiden first-class century. Still have to reserve judgment a bit on how good a bowler he is because West Indies and Sri Lanka had only a handful of Test-standard batsmen between them, but it is certain that he learns calmly and rapidly, as when taking the new ball for the first time. And the sweetness of his timing as he hooked and drove at Lord’s will linger in the memory.
Summer rating: 9
England would surely not have batted so inanely as they did at the Oval, when dismissed in 34 overs, had he not been injured in the Hundred, and he would have pressurised Sri Lanka in their run-chase more. England cannot get him back again soon enough as a No6 batsman and fifth bowler. Their batting became frayed and frail without him as Woakes had to bowl so much that his runs dried up.
Summer rating: 7
He remains England’s most valuable cricketer – assuming the permanent absence of Jofra Archer. Nobody else can strike sparks, thrill spectators and overawe batsmen as he does, not to mention his hitting. Now a long-term injury, again, but what matters is that he builds up to a couple of Tests next summer against India and three or ideally four (missing the pink-ball Test in Brisbane?) in Australia to consummate his Test career.
Summer rating: 8
