Chris Woakes transforms England’s Ashes series with some classic Wizball | Barney Ronay

The least Bazballish player ultimately saved this summer of high-stakes jeopardy for the Stokes-McCullum experiment

And so as England’s cricketers looked back across their trek through the endless Bazball summer, as they peered more closely at their moments of most profound struggle, adversity, and almost chucking it away like a bunch of Jägerbomb-sodden teenagers, they noticed that where there were previously 22 footprints in the sand, in those moments of greatest tension there was only one. Yes, England cricketers, the Spirit Of Cricket answered. That was when Chris Woakes carried you.

Well, that was unexpected. Of all the turns and twists, the throbbing narratives available to this epic Ashes series, to England’s moreish, thrilling, occasionally infuriating attempts to reinvent how this austere old game can be played, it turned out the most vital part, the key player, rescuer from the outright disaster of 3-1, was the least Bazballish of them all.