A drawn series that feels, on all sides, like an England win, is hard to dissect. From the first session at Trent Bridge to the final ball at Taunton, the series has been unmissable Ashes viewing. While on paper Australia go home with the Ashes safe, the end result in no way does the story-arc of the series justice. Here are the takeaways from the 2023 Women’s Ashes series:

The best series of all time?

Heather Knight’s claim ahead of the final ODI sounded like a bold one. But deep down, there will be few who can remember the evidence to prove her wrong. Its closeness, quality and underdog storyline all made it appointment viewing but its visibility took the tour to whole new level. A sold out ODI series for the first time ever in England, over 100,000 people into the stadiums to watch across the series, and huge media coverage all adds up. There have been so many seminal moments for the women’s game over the last decade but, even if it is just purely by how engaging the cricket has been to watch, it’s hard to remember a better series.

How big is ‘The Gap’?

It’s tempting to laud this series as a drastic narrowing of a gap that seemed like a chasm six months ago. There’s plenty of evidence to point towards that. Australia have been beaten in a bilateral ODI series for the first time in ten years. They have been beaten in a T20I series for the first time in six. You could conceivably have put England as favourites to win the Test until their final innings collapse kicked into gear. But, while that optimism is welcome after years of inevitable Australia dominance, it should be taken with caution. One series doesn’t eradicate the work Australia put into getting themselves into that position. After all, England still had home advantage and Australia were without their talismanic captain and icon batter Meg Lanning for the entirety of the tour.

England’s young stars shine bright

Two moments in this series stand out above the rest for England. The first is Lauren Filer’s blistering emergence, the second is Alice Capsey’s innings at Lord’s followed by Danni Gibson’s first-ball reverse-sweep to win the T20I series. Two key moments from two young players whose stock is fast rising. For so long, questions lingered over who there was beneath the centrally contracted old guard to challenge for places. This series showed there is no shortage of talent coming through the production line. Issy Wong was unable to get a game in the series, and we’re still patiently awaiting Grace Scrivens’ international debut. Nat Sciver-Brunt and Knight may have been the ones to do it in the end, but England would not have won this series without their abundance of young talent.

Australia miss Meg Lanning

It’s no coincidence that both times Australia have retained the Ashes rather than winning it outright since 2015, Meg Lanning was absent from their squad. That doesn’t purely come down to the volume of runs she provides but the stability and continuity she brings with her. Alyssa Healy had a tough job on her hands from the start of the series. She came in off the back of a calf injury before the T20 World Cup and broke a finger on each hand before the Test match. Opening the batting, keeping and captaining a side that were collectively not at their best, all with dodgy digits was some ask.

Rachael Haynes’ absence should also be taken into consideration. There’s no one reason to point to as to why Australia weren’t at the races throughout the series, but the loss of two key personnel feels significant.

Nat Sciver-Brunt at her very best

27 centuries have been scored against Australia in ODI cricket. By the end of this series, Sciver-Brunt has made four of those in her last five innings against them. Both her hundreds, in Southampton and Taunton, were pivotal in their own ways. While she couldn’t quite get England over the line at The Ageas, she forced Australia to scrap to the final ball for that series win. It was so close to the perfect construction of an anchor inning in an ODI chase, right up until the final ball. At Taunton, her partnership with Knight provided the platform for Danni Wyatt to tee off. She both gave stability to the innings after early wickets and accelerated in the middle. While in the series to that point she’d struggled for her best, those centuries were two of the finest you’ll see in ODI cricket.

Does the points system need changing?

England winning more matches than Australia, both white-ball series and yet still not regaining the Ashes is a bad look. It doesn’t reflect well on a competition that a team can be comfortably better than the other and still be technically considered the losers. But, whether one anomalous result in seven series of the points system warrants a change to it can be argued on both sides. There is no perfect solution to keep the elevated status of the Test game and ensure that it doesn’t become overly dominant. Both sides always go into the Ashes knowing how important a Test victory will be. England put themselves in a position to win it and Trent Bridge and didn’t capitalise. Maybe that says a drawn series is the correct result, if the trophy had already been in England’s hands, no one would be saying a drawn series result is unfair.

Regardless, the women’s series allows room for creativity in a way no other series does. There is scope improve it beyond tinkering for tinkering’s sake, and while England will be overjoyed at winning the T20I and ODI series’ they’re not the trophies that matter. They’ll be few who can argue that the Ashes remaining in Australia’s hands is a just result. The possibility of another result and further format controversy needs to be as mitigated for as possible, in order to protect the integrity of the series.