Hard to let go, says Clarke amid off-field strife reports

Clarke resigned on Saturday although he will play in the final fifth and final Test match of the series after last week, saying he had no intention of doing so.

Australia have only won three out of their last 19 Tests in England with the visitors failing to win a single game during the 2013 series.

“Alastair Cook and the England team deserve a lot of credit – they’ve shown us how to execute good swing and seam bowling”.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann got more than he bargained for when he posted a tweet asking for help in getting tickets to watch an English Premier League football match.

Lehmann, who has been told by Cricket Australia that his job is safe, conceded the end of of a cycle had been reached.

“The players are as tight as any team I’ve been a part of”. “Clarke’s record speaks for itself, and he will definitely go down as one of the greats”, said Brad Hogg, who played quite a bit of global cricket with Clarke.

Meanwhile Whitaker hailed the way in which England had bounced back from their 5-0 series loss in Australia in 2013/14. It’s not easy playing away but it’s something we have to get better at.

The latest edition of the worldwide Cricket Council’s rankings published Sunday saw Root on top of the batting standings, with Australia’s Smith, out for six and five in Nottingham, dropping down to third place.

Australia have been beset from the outset this summer by unavailability in an ageing group of players – dubbed “Dad’s Army” by one of their own former Ashes-winners, now Yorkshire coach, Jason Gillespie. “We just didn’t adjust to the conditions at all”, rued Hogg, before adding, “Australia would have gone there thinking they were well-prepared but they would be leaving this series feeling disappointed”.

“As we do after every tour, win lose or draw, we will review performances and make assessments on things that have happened during the course of the tour, what happened leading into it, whatever aspect of it the preparation and delivery and execution”, he said.

“I can’t speak for other people, but personally that was the inspiration”, he said.

“I think it’s going to be a great last Test match”. That I was making the right decision for the right reasons.

Root has scored 443 runs in the series, with two hundreds and two half-centuries, at an average of 71.79.