In the aftermath of England surrendering the Ashes, batter Joe Root was asked if changes needed to be made to the team’s management.
He was unequivocal, saying: “In terms of the playing group, we’re absolutely committed to the management.”
He went further by suggesting every player that appeared in the Ashes down under four years ago under Root’s captaincy has improved under head coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes.
But is that true? BBC Sport, with the help of CricViz’s Ashwanth Kavuluri, has crunched the numbers.
The players who played in Australia four years ago and who also appeared in this series are Root and Stokes, opener Zak Crawley, batter Ollie Pope and fast bowler Mark Wood.
We have also looked at left-arm spinner Jack Leach who played in the last Ashes series down under, has appeared regularly under McCullum and Stokes, and who still harbours hopes of breaking back into the fold.
As you might expect, Root’s Test performances have remained consistent – he averaged almost 60 in the period from September 2019 and leading up to the last Ashes down under in 2021.
His form dipped in England’s 4-0 series defeat but he was back to averaging in the 50s under Stokes and McCullum and finally scored his first century in Australia in the second Test of this series in Brisbane.
Both Pope and Crawley have improved – Pope averaged 33.74 between 2019 and the start of the last Ashes down under, with a strike-rate of 51.17. Since the 2021-22 Ashes, and going into the current series, he was averaging 39.01 and striking at 72.23. He went from one century in 18 Tests (6%) to eight in 38 (21%).
As for Crawley, he’s gone from averaging 28.34 and striking at 53.09 to 33.01 and 71.34. Interestingly, Crawley has maintained that latter average down under – unlike Root and Pope, though he is scoring marginally slower.
Ben Stokes’ batting numbers have regressed in our chosen time periods (from 43.24 between September 2019 and December 2021 to 34.91 at the start of this series), but his bowling has improved.
Stokes is England’s joint-highest wicket-taker in Tests in 2025, alongside Josh Tongue, and his influence as captain is pretty much immeasurable.
Wood’s record in the Bazball era is remarkably similar to what it was before, as is Leach’s.
In short, of the players we looked at, none have become worse and most batters have improved, both in terms of runs and strike-rate.
