Host of SEN Afternoons Jack Heverin has graded every Australian player from The Ashes series from A to F.
Despite the retention of the urn, a number of players have received fail grades.
See them below:
Tim Paine
“He captained Australia to an Ashes. That has to mean something.”
“He only averaged 20 with the bat, I think we’d want a bit more than that.
“I’ve given him a C mainly because he’s managed to retain The Ashes for Australia.”
Grade: C
David Warner
“It pains me to do this, but 95 runs at an average of 9.5. The alarming stat for me isn’t how many times Stuart Broad knocked him over, it’s the fact that he faced 184 balls for the entire series. He’s averaging 18 balls per innings.”
Grade: F
Marcus Harris
“I’m a big believer in Marcus Harris being a future opening batsman for this country and I was huge on him getting his chance, but he didn’t take his chance.”
Grade: F
Marnus Labuschagne
“He made 353 runs at 50 and importantly faced 692 balls. He was the second highest scorer for Australia in the series and made four 50s along the way.”
Grade: A
Steve Smith
“Put a thousand plusses next to Steve Smith. He made 774 runs at an average of 110. He also took 12 catches. Not sure there’s much more that can be said.”
Grade: A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++etc
Travis Head
“He made 191 runs, his last four hits were all under 25 and then he was dropped. Again, I’m a huge believer in Travis Head, but just ran out of form at the wrong time.”
Grade: D
Matthew Wade
“I would take a number six batsman with 337 runs, two tonnes and an average of 37. I thought his tonne at Edgbaston was huge.”
Grade: B
Patrick Cummins
“He took 29 wickets at 19, he was a big moments bowler for the entire series.”
Grade: A+
Josh Hazlewood
“He took 20 wickets. His 3-58 at Lord’s really set the tone in his first game back. At times we needed to throw the ball to him and get a result and we got one.”
Grade: A
Nathan Lyon
“Not his best series, he took 6-49 in the first test and helped us win the game and some of the conditions certainly didn’t suit an off spinner, but 20 wickets for the tournament.”
Grade: C
Peter Siddle
“I thought he was really good in the first test and maybe a bit unlucky to not get a few more wickets in the second test. Then he lost his spot and his fifth test performance wasn’t great by his standards.”
Grade: C
James Pattinson
“He took five wickets at 33. Did he deliver on the hype? We all wanted him to play, but did he deliver? He had a great first innings at Leeds. Maybe I’m being a bit generous with the C.”
Grade: C
Mitchell Starc
“He took four wickets, 3-80 in the fourth test and was very, very good and his 54 in that first innings was a crucial innings.”
Grade: C+
Mitchell Marsh
“He played one test and took seven wickets and got a couple of starts with the bat. We probably can’t ask too much more than that from the one test he got. He did his job.”
Grade: B
Cam Bancroft
“He’s got some serious work to with his technique and the gap between bat and pad.”
Grade: F
Usman Khawaja
“He probably could have gotten an ‘F’. He made 122 runs, three starts and looked far too nervous.”
Grade: E
Justin Langer
“He pulled the right leavers and made the right calls at the right time. The fifth test I thought he maybe got one wrong, but overall very, very good.”
Grade: A