End Times

GH worries whether we are living in them

Every time you reach an end, there’s temptation to worry whether you have reached the end - that is, the circumstances under which you may, or may not, restart. So it is with these Ashes, which reach Sydney already decided, and in some senses already defined.

Seeing his own end hove into view, Usman Khawaja has elected to make a farewell of this return to his former home. Test cricket will shamble on, with England and Australia to resume Ashes contact as soon as next year. But for the first time this summer, one has begun to wonder: if this is the best on offer, is it even worth fighting for?

What are we looking at?