5 England players who disappointed in the Ashes

Alastair Cook – 5.5/10

376 runs @ 47; HS: 244* – 1×100, 0x50

Cook's stellar knock at Melbourne was overshadowed by his failures in the remaining matches

It was a difficult series to evaluate Alastair Cook. We must remember that as the 4th Test rolled around, people were questioning whether Cook was done. He seemed clueless against Mitchell Starc’s left-arm swing with the new ball, and hadn’t scored in excess of 37.

But then he came out at Melbourne and scored the highest ever score by an overseas batsman at the venue, with 244*. That seemed to reaffirm Cook’s place at the top of the order, and generously padded his stats. Without that knock, he would have scored just 132 runs @ 16.5.

Even though it was an all-time great knock, it doesn’t detract from the fact that he was decidedly average throughout this series. Hence, he gets a rating only slightly above average.