England’s epic series against India finished in some of the most dramatic scenes cricket has ever seen on Monday evening.

A one-handed Chris Woakes came agonisingly close to helping the Poms to a famous series win at the Oval, but Australia’s villain Mohammad Siraj crashed the party.

Here are three things we learnt from the two-all series.

1. Joe Root is in the form of his life

Joe Root is as good as he ever has been.

Root tried to reinvent himself around the time of the 2023 Ashes, but has now settled down again and truly found his groove.

He scored another 537 runs this series at an and has now passed Ricky Ponting as the second-leading run-scorer in Test cricket history.

The knock on Root is that he has never scored a ton in Australia. But good luck stopping him this time.

He has better players around him than he has since he was fresh to the side and this will be his fourth tour Down Under. He’s had enough time to figure it out.

As David Warner pointed out this week – he is susceptible to the ball that nips back into his pads – but right now he is the form batter in the world.

2. England’s pace stocks are building

England have gone all in on this Ashes series by building genuine depth in their pace stocks.

They want to meet Australia with fire this week and will bring rapid-quick trio Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Brydon Carse if they can all stay fit. But Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue have now strung some good Test cricket together. Jamie Overton was picked at the Oval, but their big quicks should push him and Woakes out of the side.

If Australia is gettable, they’re gettable at the top of the order.

3. Mohammed Siraj is serious

Mohammed Siraj is now more than just Jasprit Bumrah’s understudy. It would be fair enough for Aussie fans to remember him as a bit of a fake tough guy who battled during our home summer.

But Siraj genuinely broke out in this series. He was brilliant across the final two days of the fifth Test and was comfortably the best bowler in the series. He took nine wickets at the Oval to be named player of the match, including a monster 30-over effort to win the match.