Loading

While Woakes’ dislocated shoulder in the field was truly a freakish occurrence, he was the only remaining member of the bowling attack that had started the series. Stokes’ shoulder is now in a terrible state a little over three months before the first Ashes Test; Jofra Archer still has a long way to go to be back to his best, and Mark Wood is also still in rehab mode.

Australia’s major strength is still the quality and durability of their bowling attack. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland can all be expected to be fit for the start of the Ashes, and almost as likely to remain so for its duration. England have no record at all of doing similar, and will struggle to win a Big Three series (against Australia or India) until they can.

The second conclusion to take from the Oval is that, Root and Brook’s brilliant day four partnership aside, Bazball is far harder to carry off on a pitch that gives the bowlers some help. With the ball swinging, seaming and lifting in the hands of Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, England’s breakout star Jamie Smith looked completely unable to counter: he will get more of that in Australia.

Over the past four summers, Cummins’ team have thrived on making the most of pitches that offer them movement, while the harried Australian batting lineup does just enough to get the runs that their bowlers require to defend.

Those runs came last summer against India despite having to contend with Jasprit Bumrah at his absolute best. England had a chance to size up Bumrah soon after his recovery from back surgery, and on flatter pitches too. India could not use Bumrah as freely as they had tried to in Australia, leaving Siraj to have the final word at the Oval.

Root and Brook are clearly players of top quality, and their stand on day four is worthy of high praise for the sporting surface on which it took place.

But Australia will be confident that they can ask similar questions to Siraj over long periods, benefiting from the balance provided by the spin of Nathan Lyon and the all-round capabilities of Cameron Green and Beau Webster. Vice-captain Pope, a skittish presence at number three, will be one obvious target.

The identity of England’s spin bowler has been made no clearer by a series in which Shoaib Bashir was injured, Liam Dawson discarded and Jack Leach never called upon.

Loading

Nevertheless, England will take one thing to Australia that some of their forebears struggled to maintain down under – a strong sense of unity. Woakes’ decision to walk out to the middle with his left arm in a sling, helping Gus Atkinson get the hosts to within six runs of winning the series, is the sort of moment that shows character.

Beyond Bazball’s often silly rhetoric, the posturing about saving Test cricket and the outlandish selection choices, there is a greater sense of shared purpose about the England Test side. That sort of thing is never tested more severely than on an Ashes tour of Australia. But this England does stand a chance of holding together.