With the recent Ashes series now a thing of the past, the English team may want to rename the tournament the “Thrashes”.

The English leg was won by the host nation, but not convincingly as the Australians, despite a few glitches in their team seemed to be gelling better and gaining more confidence.  Then of course there was the much talked about Stuart Broad nicking the ball and not walking, followed by Brad Haddin doing the same thing, the usual sledging and tempers flaring.  Australian coach, Darren Lehmann further fuelled the situation by encouraging the Australian supporters to give Stuart Broad a hard time during the return series.

So, off the English went to Australia and no-one, except maybe the Aussies, anticipated what was about to happen.  Michael Clarke, who already told his bowlers in England that they are the best attack in the world, was not disappointed by his men.  Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris, together with some great spin bowling by Nathan Lyon mainly held up the attack for the Australians.  The batting spoils were shared by a number of their players, including overall good performances by Chris Rogers, David Warner, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Man of the Series, Mitchell Johnson.

The English suffered a number of setbacks off the field, which did not help their cause.  Jonathan Trott returning home after the first test, stating stress to be the reason.  Graeme Swann retiring after the third test.  Matt Prior dropped for Jonny Bairstow, also after the third test.  Stuart Broad was the only player who really made an impact.

The Aussies made a clean sweep, winning the series 5-0 and now occupy the No. 3 spot in the current ICC Test Cricket rankings.

Next up for the Australians, will be a trip to South Africa, to face the current No. 1 Test team in the world.

In the batting division, South Africa have three players in the Top 10 – A.B. De Villiers (1), Hashim Amla (4) and Graeme Smith (10).  For Australia, Michael Clarke is currently ranked 7th.

In the bowling department, Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn occupy the top two positions.  For the Australians, Ryan Harris (3), Peter Siddle (6) and despite a brilliant bowling display, Mitchell Johnson is only ranked 8th.

David Warner has already had a few words to say about unravelling certain of our batsmen.  Pity he hasn’t said anything about Dale Steyn.  I suppose he has picked his fight carefully as we all know what happens when Steyn sees red…….