England’s final innings with the bat in the 2023 Ashes series was, in some ways, their finest.

They didn’t rely on elongated periods of individual genius or a counter-attacking blitz to execute their ideology. They stayed at a level pace throughout, right from ball one to James Anderson’s final reverse sweep.

When Zak Crawley hit the first ball of the day for four, he was capitalising on a half-volley, just as he had done in the first over of the series. When Ben Duckett eclipsed Australia’s lead five balls later, neither he nor Crawley had taken exceptional risks to do so.

It took Joe Root 19 deliveries to bring out the reverse scoop after he came in, depositing Mitchell Marsh over the wide third-man boundary for six. It’s a shot that looks like a heavy risk, but in reality, Root executes it so well he’s in little danger when he plays it. By lunch, England were 129-1, and Australia already looked like they’d run out of answers. Men on the boundary and wait for them to make a mistake, as has been the plan the whole time.

While Ben Stokes nearly did just after the break, hooked to Mitchell Starc on the boundary and relieved with a drop, England were not going to fall for the same trick again. Harry Brook, the only one of England’s top seven who didn’t make double figures today, was out to a ripper from Josh Hazlewood, not a chip up in the air, or a bunt to midwicket.

What England did today, in scoring their runs so quickly yet not breaking out of a canter, is a resounding exoneration of the doubts hanging over them three Test matches ago. At Lord’s, Australia signalled what their counter was going to be to England’s game plan – the entire approach itself.

After they collapsed and threw away an ascendant position there, much of England’s post-match rhetoric sounded like they’d bought into their own hype. There was a confidence bordering on arrogance when they responded to questions pointing out that their over-aggression had cost them with a wall of positivity.

But behind that, and since then, their growth as a team has been profound, even if the party line has stayed the same.

Instead of giving Australia what they needed today, England dug in, and they did so while scoring at over five an over for most of the day. For the most part, they punished below-par and tired bowlers and ground Australia into the dirt. The five wickets they lost in 12 overs at the end of the day are factored into that. Root got one that kept low off Todd Murphy and Bairstow’s lapse in concentration came once the damage was done. They weren’t perfect, but they were still dominant.

Australia hit a wall today. While they have been clinging onto the series since Headingley, today they lost what was left of their grip. They haven’t been able to extinguish England’s fire this summer; if anything, they’ve grown it. That they secured the urn in the process is a credit to how clinical they were in getting the job done early in the series.

England showed today that they can find an equilibrium. If Crawley and Root’s partnership in Old Trafford was the highest of highs, today felt like a mean, a signal of what they can achieve without being spectacular. Labelling their approach as ultra-aggression to the point of self-sabotage is, and always has been, incorrect – even if that’s how it appeared when they didn’t get it quite right.

It’s about days like today, where they did get it right. It’s about playing on the front foot and prioritising positivity over egotism. Before Headingley, Australia showed the benefits of not losing a match long enough to win it, of ensuring they stayed on par with England to capitalise on key moments when they came. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

England have won at least two sessions out of every day’s play over the last three Tests. They’ve turned their fortunes around by finding another gear many were sceptical they had. The Ashes are gone, but what their quiet evolution over the course of this series could mean for their future as a side is significant.

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