The 2021/22 Ashes was a miserable series for Joe Root's team in what ultimately would be his penultimate assignment as England captain.

The tour took place against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. Players from both sides had to adhere to strict restrictions with Australia mandating some of the toughest regulations in the world over the course of the pandemic.

Those restrictions prompted questions over whether or not England would tour in the summer leading up to the trip, during which England played New Zealand and India at home as restrictions began to ease in the UK.

England lost the five-match series 4-0, only avoiding a whitewash by finishing nine wickets down in the fourth innings at Sydney. Australia were utterly dominant, restricting England to 10 sub-300 totals across the tour.

"Thinking of Covid, it was about keeping the lights on last time we went," said Root. "Arguably we shouldn’t have gone last time, should we in retrospect?"

Ahead of the 2023 Ashes, then England seamer Stuart Broad famously descibed the 2021/22 series result as "void": "The definition of Ashes cricket is elite sport with lots of passion and players at the top of their game. Nothing about that series was high-level performance because of the Covid restrictions. The training facilities, the travel, not being able to socialise. I’ve written it off as a void series.”

Root believes England are much better placed to reclaim the urn in 2025/26 than they were in 2021/22: "We'll be in a completely different place going into next time. You can plan and you can have all the best intentions of getting a result, but it still has to fall into place.

"You need all your bowlers fit and firing, and the guys in good form scoring runs: so that's what we've got to build towards over the next couple of years."

England completed an innings victory over West Indies in the summer's curtain raiser at Lord's this week in what was also James Anderson's 188th and final Test appearance.

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