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After winning the Ashes series 3-2 against Australia, England has climbed three spots to third position in the global Cricket Council Test team rankings.

What England can still hope is for their last four wickets to carry on batting until the heavens open.

He said that “Michael has been a mainstay in the Australia team during a very successful period in its history”.

Australia’s captain Michael Clarke receives a guard of honour from his Australia teammates as he leaves the field after Australia wrap up the game on the fourth day of the fifth Ashes cricket test match between England and Australia at The Oval cricket ground in London, on...

But it still meant England had won the series 3-2, an overall result that confounded the forecasts of many pundits.

England captain Alastair Cook cautioned against taking Bell’s comments at full face value, and was clear that he would encourage his colleague to stay on for the challenges ahead.

Peter Siddle made the breakthrough when he trapped Mark Wood lbw for six before Jos Buttler chipped Mitchell Marsh to mid-off for 42.

He bowled in the nets yesterday, but was at about 60-70% and that’s not how you go into a game.

Just as the eventual scoreline of 3-2 in England’s favour did not alter Clarke’s feelings about the overall series, victorious captain Alastair Cook was unchanged in his opinion.

Siddle, playing his first match of the series, was far and away Australia’s best bowler at The Oval, taking four for 35 in England’s second innings as Australia won by an innings and 46 runs on Sunday.

It was a charm, however, completely lacking from the 2015 Ashes, which ended with England winning the five-match series 3-2 despite Australia’s innings and 46-run win in the concluding Test at The Oval on Sunday.

The Lancashire seamer sustained a side strain in England’s win over the Baggy Greens at Edgbaston and was forced to watch the next Test from the dressing room as his team mates wrapped up the series at Trent Bridge.

Lauding Michael Clarke’s leadership, Indian Test captain Virat Kohli on Sunday congratulated the retiring Australian skipper for his “magnificent cricket journey” which would end with the fifth and final Ashes Test against England. It was his second hundred of...

Earlier, a ninth-wicket stand of 57 between Moeen Ali and Mark Wood saved just a few, but not many, of England’s blushes before the same pair both fell to Johnson in a fitting anti-climax to an unsatisfactory batting display.

At stumps on the second day of the fifth Test, England had slumped to 107 for eight in reply to Australia’s first innings 481 – a huge deficit of 374 runs.