Ashes 2023: England will look back on this series as a lost opportunity, says Mark Butcher

Rain washed away England's hopes of levelling the series on Day Five of the fourth Test in Manchester on Sunday

New Delhi: Former English Test cricketer Mark Butcher has stated that despite putting in a fine performance at Old Trafford, England will look back on this Ashes series as a “lost opportunity”.

Rain washed away England’s hopes of levelling the series on Day Five of the fourth Test in Manchester on Sunday as Australia retained their hold on the urn regardless of the outcome in the fifth Test of an enthralling series at The Oval that starts on Thursday.

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Butcher, speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, asserted that rain has been a longstanding component of the game adding that it’s a shame the way the series has been decided. “The first three days were exactly what England have been looking for from the beginning of the series really. But the forecast was bad from a long way out and it kind of did exactly what it promised to do. “I’ve played enough cricket to know that battling against the elements, trying to win games before the rain comes in or trying to save games before the rain comes in have always been part of the game of cricket. It’s a shame the series, or the Ashes has been decided that way but the series is still alive. England really will look back on the whole thing, no matter what happens at The Oval as a lost opportunity,” Butcher said.

The former cricketer further said Ben Stokes’ side had chances to overturn the result of the first two Tests they lost but lacked the necessary experience to capitalize on them. “Even in the first two Test matches that they lost, they had opportunities to reverse both of those results and just weren’t quite smart enough or quite experienced enough perhaps to take advantage of theme which left them with a mountain to climb,” said Butcher.

Winning three on the bounce against Australia is a Herculean task. They probably would have won the game if it weren’t for the weather, but still, that’s baked into cricket in England. Bad weather has always played a part, sometimes it helps you out sometimes it dumps all over you and that’s the game,” he added.

Although the chance to reclaim the Ashes has been lost, Butcher was full of praise for England’s performance at Old Trafford and said bowling out Australia on Day One, on such a challenging pitch, and restricting them to a low first innings score was “an absolute triumph”.

“The batting as always will take the plaudits. Going at seven an over for that incredible passage of play on Day Two with Zak Crawley and Joe Root, Moeen Ali played superbly at No.3. But bowling Australia out on Day One, or Day One and a bit, on that pitch for a very very small first innings score for the conditions was also an absolute triumph. I think they will rightly say that could have been the absolute peak Bazball performance ever since this whole thing began,” he said.

Australia will now head into the final Test, knowing that a win would give them a historic series triumph on English soil as they have not won an Ashes series in England in 22 years. On the other hand, England are expected to come out with a strong sense of determination to make a significant impact in the series, aiming to level it 2-2 after their performance in Manchester.