1) Stokes’ night in Bristol

The Ashes isn’t always about the actual cricket. The most significant moment of the epic 2005 series came during a game of touch rugby, when Glenn McGrath stood on a stray cricket ball and was injured on the morning of the second Test. In 2017, the England players’ apparently harmless decision to have a few beers in Bristol after an ODI victory over West Indies had unimaginable consequences. Ben Stokes may not have made much difference but we will never know for sure what happened in that parallel universe.

2) A single error at the Gabba

James Vince looked to the Gabba born on the first day of the series, batting beautifully with Mark Stoneman to challenge all the spook stories about Australia’s pace attack. And then he went and spoiled it all by saying something stupid like ‘Yes!’ Vince’s decision to take a quick single backfired when he was run out for 83 by a brilliant throw from Nathan Lyon in the covers. With Joe Root falling soon after, England’s opening day was downgraded from almost perfect to merely promising.

3) Smith’s slender slice of luck

Even the greatest innings include a hard-luck story or two from the fielding side. Usually it’s a dropped catch or a poor umpiring decision – but Steve Smith was in such control during his immense 141 not out during Australia’s first innings at the Gabba that England could only reflect on a couple of near misses in consecutive overs. First he edged Moeen Ali just short of slip and then mistimed a pull off Chris Woakes that instead landed safely and went for four. Smith was only in the 20s when they happened, with Australia already four down for under a hundred. After that, though, he barely played another false stroke.

Steve Smith celebrates his century on day three at the Gabba that swung the first Test, but he came very close to getting out a couple of times early in that innings. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

4) Lack of ruthlessness

There were times when England failed to recognise the moment, never mind seize it. The most important came either side of lunch on day three of the first Test. Australia were seven down, almost 100 behind, and Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad had both struck with the second new ball. Yet they were given only three and four overs respectively, allowing Australia to regroup against the back-up seamers. By the time Anderson and Broad returned, the No9 Pat Cummins was comfortable at the crease and Australia were on their way to a vital first-innings lead.

5) The wonky crease

England’s second innings at Brisbane, when they were bowled out for 195, was when the series started to slip away. Only once were Australia under significant pressure, when Jonny Bairstow and Moeen were counterattacking breezily on the fourth afternoon. England were 155 for five, 126 ahead, when Moeen was given out stumped off Nathan Lyon – a Spandex-tight call based on a crease line that had not exactly been painted with loving precision. It sparked another collapse, and Australia ended up winning a tight match by 10 wickets.

6) Root’s Adelaide call

The perspective of time should ensure that Root’s decision to bowl in Adelaide is not laughed about in the same breath as the infamous calls by Nasser Hussain in 2002-03 and Ricky Ponting in 2005. But it was an unnecessarily risky decision; the kind you make at 2-0 down, not 1-0 down. If it played to England’s strength, Anderson and Broad, it also played to their weaknesses, particularly an inability to cope with scoreboard pressure. And on a tour where perception has sometimes been more important than reality, it invited negativity as only bowling first can.

7) DRS doubts

Not even technology’s word is final. There were plenty of doubts about the accuracy and application of DRS in the first three Tests, never more so than when Anderson trapped Shaun Marsh lbw on the second morning at Adelaide. Marsh’s review looked on the desperate side of optimistic. So when the Specsavers ball-tracker suggested the ball was bouncing over the stumps, many felt DRS should have gone to a different optician. Marsh was on 29 at the time; he went on to make a match-winning 126 not out.

8) Cummins times it just right

Smith was having a public meltdown on the fourth evening at Adelaide, with Root and Dawid Malan inching England into the ascendancy. Australia desperately needed a wicket to change the mood of the match – and of their captain – going into the final day. In the last half-hour Cummins, an impact bowler who transcends statistics with the timing of his wickets, produced a furious delivery to bowl Malan and give Australia a slight advantage that they exploited ruthlessly on the fifth morning.

9) Smith ignores ego

When the returning Mitchell Marsh bowled two poor overs on the second morning at Perth, Smith put the needs of the team above those of Marsh’s ego. England had scored 36 from the last four overs, so Smith took off Marsh and brought on Nathan Lyon to restore order. He dried up the runs so successfully that, instead of waiting for bad balls, Malan now had to manufacture scoring opportunities. In doing so he was caught brilliantly off a leading edge, sparking a wretched collapse from 368 for four to 403 all out.

10) Starc’s wonderball

Mitchell Starc’s ball to Vince did not change the third Test, which by that stage was always going to be won by Australia. But it was the champagne moment of the series, one that will forever be used as visual shorthand for the 2017-18 Ashes. It was also emphatic confirmation that, though England had opportunities earlier in the series, they were now undertaking an exercise in futility.