{"id":399310,"date":"2026-01-08T08:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399310\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T08:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:04:08","slug":"ashes-player-ratings-travis-head-mitchell-starc-ben-stokes-and-joe-root-all-rated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399310\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes player ratings: Travis Head, Mitchell Starc, Ben Stokes and Joe Root all rated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Zak Crawley \u2013 5 \u2013 Averaged 27, which was entirely predictable at the beginning of the series. Did not live up to the billing of a man backed for Australia and should not be guaranteed a place for the home summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ben Duckett \u2013 3 \u2013 Arrived with a reputation as one of the best all-format batters in the world, leaves with career at a crossroads. Did not pass 50, dropped catches and was caught on video in Noosa. Now goes to England&#8217;s white-ball tours and the Indian Premier League, when a break might be the smart option.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jacob Bethell \u2013 7 \u2013 Where has he been? How different might England&#8217;s tour have turned out had they backed Bethell sooner? Only two Tests, but a vital 40 in Melbourne was followed by a coming-of-age 154 in Sydney. England&#8217;s new number three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Joe Root \u2013 7 \u2013 Finally ticked off the Test century in Australia and got another in Sydney, but not much else. Still England&#8217;s best batter at 35 and wants to come back in four years. Where would they be without him?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Harry Brook \u2013 5 \u2013 Should have been the series when he announced himself as a Test mega-star and instead was one of too many frustrating dismissals. Has a lot on his plate as white-ball captain &#8211; is that hindering his development as a Test batter?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ben Stokes \u2013 6 \u2013 Another England captain to be beaten down under and will not get another chance to win a series here. England&#8217;s best bowler, below his best with the bat and a poor series tactically. Gets an extra mark for shouldering the burden of the many team-mates that let him down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jamie Smith \u2013 3 \u2013 Like Duckett, arrived as an England banker and leaves with his international future in doubt. Mistakes with the gloves and too many soft dismissals &#8211; his shot in Sydney encapsulated England&#8217;s bone-headed tour. Dropped from the white-ball teams, is a Test axe next?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Will Jacks \u2013 5 \u2013 Did what he was asked to do, which was bowl some part-time off-spin and bat at eight &#8211; it is just that no-one expected him to do it in four Tests. Would be unfair to judge on a role Jacks isn&#8217;t really qualified for. When might he play another Test?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Brydon Carse \u2013 6 \u2013 A total of 22 wickets for a fast bowler has been bettered only by James Anderson and Ian Botham on England Ashes tours in the past 55 years. The numbers don&#8217;t quite tell the story of how often he sprayed the ball. Having the durability to play all five Tests says plenty about his character.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Matthew Potts \u2013 1 \u2013 Probably harsh, given the hand he was dealt. His sole appearance in Sydney was tough to watch. Mistreated by England &#8211; in and out, ignored for a year, then dropped into an Ashes Test. Will surely slip further down the pecking order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Josh Tongue \u2013 7 \u2013 Didn&#8217;t play until the third Test, then managed to pick up 18 wickets. One of the few England players to leave Australia with his reputation enhanced and should be in the first-choice attack come the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mark Wood \u2013 2 \u2013 A Herculean effort to get fit, only for his series to end after bowling 11 overs in the first Test. Will he play for England again?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jofra Archer \u2013 6 \u2013 Bowled better than a total of nine wickets would suggest and at times was among England&#8217;s best batters. Injured after three matches as a reminder (if it was needed) he will need constant managing through the remainder of his Test career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ollie Pope \u2013 3 \u2013 Started with promise, then predictably faded to be rightly dropped after three Tests. Did not repay faith shown in him and should have to work very hard for another chance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Gus Atkinson \u2013 3 \u2013 One of the many who wilted in the first two Tests, then hinted at something near his best in the fourth, only to get injured. No longer a guaranteed part of England&#8217;s first-choice attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Shoaib Bashir \u2013 0 \u2013 Was earmarked for this tour in an experiment of building a spinner from raw materials, then could not get a game in any of the five Tests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zak Crawley \u2013 5 \u2013 Averaged 27, which was entirely predictable at the beginning of the series. Did&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-399310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}