England battered, but not broken, says Atherton

Michael Atherton, the former England captain, writing in The Times newspaper, described the series as “one-sided”, but said the mood did not feel as desperate as in 2013-14.

“England have been battered, bruised, badly beaten but not, in my estimation, completely broken,” he wrote.

“There was no sense at the end that England had hoisted the white flag as they had four years earlier, when a three-day defeat and subsequent recriminations brought a swift end to a bright era of English cricket.

“It was hard to recall a more stomach-churning capitulation than that, but here England hung in for a while, grimly, trying their hardest until the end but just beaten by a better side in the conditions.”