The 251-run mauling by a rampant Australia is the first time since that unforgettable summer that England have lost the First Ashes test of the summer.
We all know how that series ended but there can be little comfort for those seeking comparisons to the heady days of 2005.
This Australian attack is nowhere near as potent with bat or ball as their counterparts were 14 years ago. The problem is neither is the England batting line-up.
For Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan, Pietersen and Flintoff read Burns, Roy, Root, Denly and Stokes.
In 2005 the line-up came into the series with just one change, Mr Reliable Graham Thorpe made way for Mr Saturday Night Kevin Pietersen.
Yet England came into this game still tinkering with the places and names of those being asked to do what the Three Lions have managed just once in 18 months at home, a score of more than 400.
No matter their attack, any Australian team is capable of the forensic dismantling of a team in the fourth innings and that’s what took place in four hours on the final day at Edgbaston.
Lyon bowled well, Smith resumed his net session against England with two further tons but England’s problems are all of their own making.
The batting order either contains the wrong people or is in the wrong order. Burns has earned a run at the top but Jason Roy played an awful shot which this pack of Aussie hyenas won’t hesitate to remind him of for the next six weeks.
Root simply doesn’t like batting at three, while he scored a 50 in the first innings can England really keep their skipper in a role he just doesn’t want?
Then we come to Joe Denly, an opener batting at four. I don’t see what other, more qualified, people do. It simply looks a matter of time before he is dismissed, he doesn’t have the presence at the crease which says ‘I belong’.
Buttler is too high at five, Stokes is in his ideal spot at six but I worry about YJB, young Jonny Bairstow.
The England keeper seems angry with the world, can’t buy a run with the bat and seems marooned down at seven. Yet at three and without the gloves in Sri Lanka he scored a brilliant test match hundred.
And then there’s Moeen, a player who has batted every position for his country bar 9,10 or 11 but if selected at Lords could well bat at nine behind Chris Woakes.
The time has come for England to decide what they want from one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet. Is he an all-rounder or the spin option? If he is in the team for his spin then he’s judged on that, any runs are a bonus.
It should be clear as day now though Moeen bowls best when he has a spin twin to play with, its up to England to stick or twist.
The problem is Moeen, like a few of this England side, simply can’t buy a run currently against an Australian attack which feasts on out of form batsman.
As for the bowling, I don’t believe Anderson was fit enough to play, no words from the captain will make me change my mind.
The attack is all the same, right arm over the wicket bowlers. A pace injection is needed.
So where do we go from here? To quote the great American football coach Bill Belichick ‘We’re on to Lords’.
My team for what it’s worth: Burns, Roy, Bairstow, Root, Ali, Stokes, Buttler (wk), Woakes, Archer, Broad, Leach.
Take the gloves off Bairstow not as punishment but because of what he is capable of at the top of the order, ease Moeen’s fretful performances with a mate to play with and unleash Jofra Archer.
Because if there is one glimmer of hope for England from the storming of Edgbaston, it’s the Aussie top order.
Bancroft, Smith and Khawaja contributed just 78 runs in six innings between them, Steven Smith scored 286 on his own….
Today will soon be the past, tomorrow will be the future and England return to the place where they became World Champions next Wednesday knowing a gold medal performance is needed to get their Ashes bid back on the right Root.
