It was dank, dreary and depressing - but the final-day washout at The Oval was no more than this Test match deserved. After four days of summer weather, we were reminded why this was the latest-ever finish to a Test in England as a distinctly autumnal gloom descended. The sunshine and cheery anticipation of Thursday morning soon fell away as it became clear that the two sides were happy to have what they held. Like gamblers nervously thinking about the mortgage, Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly were never willing enough to raise the stakes.

Overall, though, it's been a good summer for England, and a 3-1 scoreline does them much credit. The plusses were considerable. They discovered their best opening partnership for many a year, and if Marcus Trescothick is England's Graham Gooch - a plain, economical biffer who just never seems to fail - then Michael Vaughan is the new David Gower. There's the dreamy strokeplay, the ability to compile big, matchwinning scores (ironically both of Vaughan's 190s were in draws, but that was no fault of his) at a cracking rate without breaking sweat. And, occasionally, there's the lame, exasperating dismissal: Vaughan was caught at mid-off at Old Trafford, caught at cover at Headingley - and very nearly run out without facing a ball in the second innings at The Oval.

Not since Gower has an English batsman made quite so many runs quite so effortlessly, and Vaughan's relentless productivity and flair were such that his predecessor - a man who didn't serve England badly between 1989 and 2001 - was hardly mentioned at all. It was simply a perfect summer for Vaughan, topped off by that wonderball to Tendulkar at Trent Bridge and a scorching catch to get rid of Trescothick in the C&G Trophy final. Get your money on his beloved Sheffield United for promotion now.

Flat pitches and toothless seam bowling made it a good summer to be an English batsman. Having not scored 500 in a Test for over five years, they did it five times in seven Tests. The new, abstemious Mark Butcher hinted at a Boonesque solidity in the No. 3 spot, and in three Tests in the middle of the summer England had no fewer than seven different centurions. For a time, they even had four batsmen - Vaughan, Trescothick, Graham Thorpe and Alec Stewart - with a Test average over 40, until Stewart's cruelly dipped to 39.99 when he was dismissed in front of that giant poster of himself at The Oval.

England missed Thorpe's oomph in the middle order badly as the India series went on. Butcher is a sober figure these days, Hussain can get bogged down and will never take an attack apart, and John Crawley's old insecurities were all too evident as he fudged through a series of 10s and 20s after the century at Lord's that promised so much.

It wasn't all about the batsmen. For years England have been crying out for a raw, spunky fast bowler. They finally found one in Simon Jones - and then immediately found another in Steve Harmison. It is far too early to talk about one of them doing a Tyson and putting the wind up the Aussies, but the promise is clear - and in the case of Jones, so is the sense that Test cricket is his stage. They also complement each other perfectly: Jones all skid and swing, Harmison an old-fashioned mid-pitch pounder.

With Matthew Hoggard a dangerous spearhead, occasional crises of confidence notwithstanding, England finally hinted at a future without Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick. Gough didn't play a single Test, and though Caddick managed five, he bowled dismally in two of those and managed only 5.3 overs in a third. And the young guns showed an impressive discipline when it came to bowling out good sides on good pitches - Sri Lanka at Old Trafford and India at Lord's.

Sadly they were less accomplished at bowling out good players on helpful pitches. Their first-day performances at Trent Bridge and Headingley were pretty wretched; had they hit their straps in both, it is not inconceivable that England might have won 3-0. The lot of the English finger-spinner fell even lower too: Ashley Giles's wickets cost 49 runs apiece and each one took over 18 overs. Those figures weren't unflattering.

Andrew Flintoff's poor statistical returns - 17.62 with the bat (only 0.87 better than Matthew Hoggard) and 60.81 with the ball (6.24 worse than Geoff Boycott's career average) were a worry in a summer when, to the objective eye, he was largely impressive. And after captaining like the best of Mike Brearley for the most part, Hussain ended the summer offering the worst of Mike Atherton's reign: a tetchy, weary resignation. By the end, you knew that Hussain knew his bowlers could not keep India's batsmen in check.

There was a good reason for this. Two years of constant cricket really came home to roost in the last month, and England are on their last legs. Sadly, most of them will be in Sri Lanka for the ICC Champions Trophy this week. With a schedule like this, something had to give.

Click here for England's summer batting averages

Click here for England's summer bowling averages

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd