What a difference a year makes. If you cast your mind back to England's final Test match in 2021, they were meekly surrendering the Ashes to Australia inside three days at the MCG as Pat Cummins' side took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series with two games to spare.
England were utterly humiliated, bowled out for just 68 in their second innings as debutant Scott Boland ran riot with the quite frankly ridiculous figures of 6-7 ensuring England ended the year as a record-breakingly bad team.
In 2021, they suffered more defeats than any other side in the history of Test cricket with nine, were dismissed for less than 150 a record eight times and scored more than 400 in an innings just once. While Joe Root enjoyed a stunning run of form with the bat, scoring the third most runs in a calendar year ever with 1,708, he stood alone for England.
