This series has shown that Anderson's time is up I only hope he sees that and get's given the appropriate send of at The Oval. I can't even imagine Jofra Archer being fit let alone what he may have done in this series. I personally don't see him having much of a test career. He seems more interested in being a white ball mercenary.

I'm not sure there's much future in the bowling attack that played in this test.

A tale of two declarations from Stokes (or rather lack of in one case). At Edgbaston he declared far too early and gave Australia the initiative in the early on in the series. Then in this test he batted on too long for Bairstow to get his hundred and allow them to justify his selection but in the end his selection has not been justified as his performance behind the stumps has had a huge bearing on this series..

They deservedly got themselves ahead 2-0 up early and that has made sure that they retained the urn. If you go 2-0 down as England did then you are always going to be a hostage to circumstances.

The biggest loser of time is overrates. England's overrate yesterday as it has been all series was unacceptable and so has Australia's for that matter. 26 overs lost due to slow overrates in the first 3 days of this test and that is with the additional half an hour as well.

At least we won't have this problem in the next Ashes Series over here with 3 tests being held in the glorious south.

He actually (unintentionally) makes the case for him not keeping wicket.

In that case bat Root at 5 that him even more he averages over 68 batting there.

But batting Moeen at 3 doesn't suit him. Moeen averages 13.14 batting at 3 whereas Root averages 39.67, so it clearly suits Root more than Moeen. But I'd bat Stokes at 3 he is perfectly suited to bat there and given how little he has bowled of late he is being wasted down at 6.

Not picking Woakes at Lords could end up being a series defining mistake.

But 3 it is not Moeen's best position he averages 13 batting at 3 that is more than half his career average. If Stokes isn't going to be bowling much he should bat at 3 he's got the technique & temperament to bat there. And the Aussie's would hate to see it as they are clueless as to how to bowl at him. A great turnout at Taunton yesterday incredible to see how the crowds have grown over the years in the Women's game, when I think back to the crowds we had at Taunton when hosting the entire group stage of the 2009 Women's T20 World Cup. England got a lot closer to Australia than I thought they would this series (although I don't think you can understate how big the absence of Meg Lanning was) the big difference in the end was fielding Australia are a gun fielding side whereas England resemble more a club cricket team especially when it comes to catching. If England catch better they most likely win the test and the ODI at Southampton. I think the format is perfect for the women's game & has improved the Women's Ashes as a competition immeasurably. It's only right that the test match the purest form of the game holds the most weight. Although I do think that they were right to lower it from 6 to 4 points as they did after the 13/14 series as that weighted it slightly too much in favour of the test.

Forget Foakes, forget Bairstow. The future of English wicket keeping is James Rew, a very special talent.

Is Buttler still contracted for red ball cricket? If he's played 20 red ball games in his 10 seasons there I'd be surprised.

Another year of Southern dominance in the blast for the second time in 3 seasons its an all south finals day. At this rate they are going to have give the Southern group an extra place in the quarter finals.

Another drop from Bairstow but thankfully not an expensive one this time. Bairstow's performance with the gloves this series has been embarrassing he cannot continue with them.

If England are chasing 250 then they will win this test.

57 Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com

Steve Waugh used to talk about mental disintegration. Well we've certainly seen that from Warner whenever Broad is bowling and the whole Aussie team when Stokes is at the crease.

Whatever England have to chase second innings here Stokes will fancy it. Australia look a shambles in the field when Stokes is at the crease.

Australia are terrified of Stokes they have no clue how to get him out and are basically just hoping that he miss hits one in the air. The problem is the tail starts at 7. They lost 6 wickets for 23 runs yesterday.

And yet here you are below talking about the spirit of the sport/game in the cricket thread when talking about cricket. Which sport were you talking about then tiddlywinks?

The player I'd call up is Sam Hain been has a good solid technique, scores at a decent rate which they like and has been scoring runs in County cricket for a good few years now in all formats. It staggers me how he has never in any format been called up to a senior England squad even when they had to select a 2nd XI against Pakistan a few years back he did not get a look in.

Firstly I don't think it has any relevance whatsoever, secondary I am not particularly passionate about the National Football team so I wouldn't be bothered either way. Although I do seem to remember Raheem Sterling diving to win a penalty to take England to the final of the Euro's, I can only assume that you were outraged by it and cheered for Italy in the final in order to protect the spirit of the sport. Thirdly I would cheer Rovers winning anything. Some would say as we have already seen from one poster on here for example that bowling short to Lyon was not in the spirit of the game. Nor would some think that targeting a players injury is in the spirit of it. Some would also say that both sides continuously peppering tailenders with short balls was not in the spirit. That never used to be a part of the game If you read my posts correctly (which evidently you haven't) you will see I said multiple times that I had no problem with bowling short to Lyon (from a moral/spirit stand point at least). You talk about it being top level sport but are then outraged that a player is fairly dismissed because he rather dopily goes for a walk out of his crease before the ball is dead. Would you like Australia to have said 'You've been fairly dismissed Johnny but come back and have another'. This is where you end up tying yourself in knots when talking about the 'spirit of cricket' because it is a mythical thing and all it really is, is individual opinions.

For me he's the finest sports writer in the country, one of the few who is always worth reading.