Two injuries for Josh Hazlewood and a lack of potency from spinner Nathan Lyon (nine wickets at 36.88) and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh (three wickets at 46.33) left Australia’s seamers with some heavy lifting to do.

Questions remain about their stocks beneath Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland but the veteran trio lifted Australia to the series win.

Cummins claimed 25 wickets at 21.36, Starc 18 at 28.66 and Boland, despite only playing three games, 21 at 13.19.

Starc and Cummins were responsible for 48.8% of Australia’s overs in the series – up from 41.7% in home Tests the past two years.

Cummins’ speeds dropped slightly in the series (85.1mph average in the first to 83.8 in the last) but Starc’s average speed was actually at its highest in Sydney (87.7).

They will face a similar challenge, in terms of turnaround between matches, in next winter’s Ashes but, after February’s tour of Sri Lanka, their only Test before the Ashes is the World Test Championship final against South Africa in June. They have time for rest.

They weren’t often helped by their batters in this series either. Australia have been three down for less than 100 on 13 occasions since the start of 2024.

That is the fifth-worst among the nine Test Championship sides, but their average runs per dismissal for the top three of 27.4 is the third lowest.

Staggeringly, across the 192 innings in the series, there were 100 scores of 10 or fewer. Australia accounted for 47 of them.