Australia's David Warner showed many different sides of his personality while Nathan Lyon was the silent assassin - BUMBLE'S ASHES AWARDS

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SNARL OF THE SERIES

In first place, David Warner, the self-confessed reverend. He must be a wow in the pulpit. In second place, David Warner. And in third place, David Warner. Even when he’s winning, he’s furious! He does fit the bill, doesn’t he? Small, angry and sandy-haired. It’s a lethal mix. 

Australia vice-captain David Warner (right) has shown many different sides to his personality

Delayed injury

This has to go to Aussie opener Cameron Bancroft. His to-do with Jonny Bairstow in Perth at the start of the tour took four weeks to materialise, and then we had that press conference when him and Steve Smith turned into the Chuckle Brothers. After that, Bancroft never scored a run. It must all have been because of that head butt!  

Silent assassin 

Nathan Lyon, because everyone was talking about pace at the start. Well, it wasn’t that simple, and Lyon showed there are many ways to skin a cat. He ended up skinning Moeen Ali in every Test. Lyon wasn’t that silent, was he? He promised to end careers, and in James Vince’s case he might have been right.

Nathan Lyon (left) took hold of the Ashes series and hurt England where it mattered

Must do better 

England’s selectors walk away with this. Lyon is known to be lethal against left-handers, so what do they fill the team with? One leftie after another! And they continue to choose bowlers who do the same thing. In Australia, you need variety, which means a left-armer. Think George Garton of Sussex. And you need searing pace. One of the quickest is Northants’ Richard Gleeson.  

Reading between the lines 

It was interesting to hear England’s assistant coach Paul Farbrace say the other night that we should be picking players with the right skills and the right character, which sounded like a dig both at the selectors and one or two who perhaps weren’t up  The only place you find out the answer to that is in the dressing-room.   

England assistant coach Paul Farbrace (right) has watched on anxiously through the series

Don't get carried away 

Step forward Tom Curran. I’ve seen so many say get him in. Well, they got him in and he was the same as so many other England seamers: right-arm, about 82mph. 

Do get carried away 

Dawid Malan grew in stature, finding conditions to his liking. One 100 and three 50s is a good return. 

Dawid Malan grew in stature as the series went on and the conditions were to his liking

Harsh truth 

We have a choice to make. Do we carry on with all this county cricket, with too many games, and a fixture list that has four-day matches in winter and autumn and none in the summer?

Or do we play less cricket and go for quality over quantity to help improve the Test side? I suspect I know the answer, unfortunately.