The sad fact is that outside of England and for certain matches in Australia far too few of the public are paying any prices to watch test cricket. Just look at the crowds for the ongoing tests in Trinidad and Colombo.

There is a difference between it being light and it being light enough to play cricket. I certainly wouldn't want to be facing say Mark Wood with the red ball in hand at 20:30. They are given an extra half an hour in the day to get the overs in that they can't do that is poor on their part. England's overrate yesterday given they bowled predominantly spin and knew they weren't going to get a huge amount of playing time was dreadful. The taking of lunch was as much for the ground staff to get everything ready as anything. That is just part and parcel of cricket rain has saved England in the past think back to Cardiff in 2013. It saved us in Sydney from another whitewash on our last tour down under.

Stokes on the BBC saying that 'there are bigger things for us than winning the Ashes'. I can only assume that is the New Zealander in him coming out as there is nothing bigger for the England cricket team than winning the Ashes and come the first ball in Brisbane in 2025 it will be over 10 years since England last won an Ashes series, Is that looking awful new hotel at least going to be painted red? At the very least they could make it blend in with other awful looking hotel and the point. Ground's like The Oval, Lords, Edgbaston have modernised but still look and feel like cricket grounds. Old Trafford when you visit feels more like a corporate hospitality venue where they also just happen to play cricket.

Defiant or deluded?

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.

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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.