"So here it is Merry Christmas! Everybody's having fun (except perhaps Ben Duckett). Look to the future now, it's only just begun. Does Sir Geoffrey always tell you that the old ways are the best? Then he's up and rock'n' hang on, there's no way of making that work. Much like being in charge of an England Test team in Australia if your name is not Andrew. Anyway, here's a quiz question."
"Yes, the answer is Ben Stokes' brave boys from 2025-26. They're averaging 258 per completed innings (actually, all their innings have been completed for some reason, not even Stokes has been inclined to declare). The Aussies have made 372 per completed innings only four of those so far, but the two romps to victory still feed into the average. So the difference between the two sides has been 114. That may sound embarrassing, but, by England's Ashes-tour standards, it's highly respectable."
"Last time round, under Joe Root, they averaged a feeble 202. Their bowlers kept the Aussies down to 350, which still left them, on average, 148 behind. The time before, also on Root's watch? England batted better, averaging 292. But we may have to give most of the credit to the pitches, as the Aussies averaged 514. No, that is not a misprint: the gulf was 222, almost twice as bad as in the present series."
A simple yardstick compares each losing England Ashes touring squad's average runs per completed innings with Australia's, giving a gap measure. Ben Stokes' 2025-26 team averaged 258 while Australia averaged 372, producing a 114-run gap — the smallest among losing English tours this century. Joe Root's recent tour produced a 148-run gap, and an earlier Root tour yielded a 222-run gulf driven by Australia's 514 average. Alastair Cook's 2013-14 tour showed a 198 gap. Andrew Flintoff's 2006-07 tour had the largest gulf at 264. Nasser Hussain's 2002-03 tour produced a 175-run difference.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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