I think Mike might have put this up too.

True, Baggers.

There is no viable current captain besides Paine, and, Carey is inexperienced.

To go straight in to an Ashes series, is a big step for Carey.

I didn't see them, but according to Grazor Carey dropped many  key chances in the WC too.

Gday  Dc,
jaszyjim - I will answer this type of dialogue in full at the end of the series

Gday Paddles,
jaszyjim - agree with you 100%

No way! I saw Perera's knock and it was indeed absolutely incredible, but I think Stokes was better given the series circumstances.

Keep in mind, if Stokes got out, that was the entire ashes gone. The pressure on him was way higher than Perera - an entire Ashes series on one man's shoulders. Plus the bowling may not have been quite as hot but the pitch was tougher. To do that with all of those pressures on, plus 15,000 Northern English fans screaming, that's off the charts. 

Circumstances? Really don't buy this. 

 Look I get you think that the Ashes series win is a thing as against drawn series. But its still just another test series. There's been drawn series before, be drawn series again.

Its not like they'll skip the fourth and 5th test if Aus won the third. 

Now you can tell me I don't get it. But I got up to watch the English chase cos I thought they had a chance of winning. I got to see Stoke's innings, cos I thought England had a good chance of doing it.

Now Perera, in South Africa, after SL had lost 3-0 at home to England, had lost away comfortably, I mean thrashed, to NZ and Aus - then turn up with a mickey mouse team, facing Philander, Rabada, Steyn, Maharaj and Olivier. And pull off a bigger 10th wicket partnership chase to win. AWAY. On a spicy pitch. Against the best bowling attack on the planet!. Sorry - its not close. Noone had heard of Perera before that innings, we already knew Stokes. Perera scored more runs, he scored more his team's total, and he blunted the best bowling group on the planet. Away. On a mine field. In a team that had just lost 3 series in a row...

Perera for mine, much more brilliant and unexpected innings. Root, Bairstow, Stokes, England always had a chance. SL sent a rubbish team that should have been destroyed by Rabada, Ngidi, Philander, Olivier, Maharaj et al like Australia, India and everyone else has been. But they won? In those circumstances? With Perera playing like a man possessed with CHANCELESS innings. Not dropped like Stokes was. Chanceless.

Sometimes I don't get why any country plays test cricket, if the Ashes - between the 4th and 5th ranked test nations, means so much more apparently cos its the Ashes. You really think Olivier, Steyn and Rabada, let alone Perera, dont care about winning their tests even if they're not Ashes matches? But here's the thing, if Perera doesn;'t win that test, SL coudn't win their first series in SA. An entire SA tour on one man's shoulders ;)

You may not understand this, but it was  huge deal to Indiam cricket fans to win in Aus, even if not the Ashes,  India still have never won in SA. NZ has never won in SA. Its a big deal to many of us. And SL has, while fielding their worst test team since the 1980's. Perera made it possible. And it did then happen. SL beat India to a series win in SA... they got one up on big brother. Again. And while Aus and Eng fans may get excited about the Ashes, sub continental fans are always excited by every single test match. They are under intense and constant pressure. They drop players and coaches like tomorrow. And burn effigies in the streets. The players and the coaches fight in public. The CURRENT players even fight with each other's player's wives on twitter lately! Seriously, read T Perera, Malinga, wive, captaincy issue. https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/sri-lanka-a-laughing-stock-captain-s-wife-in-spat-with-player-20190131-p50urh.html Its not evena  wait till retire and sell some gossip. These are current players. And they're fighting on twitter and facebook!

If winning in SA despite the Ashes was important to Aussies, Smith and Warner wouldn't have cheated. These guys are playing to win whether they are from Eng or Aus, Ind or SL, regardless of who they're playing and where.

 They're cricket nuts in the sub continent. There is always pressure to perform on them. Always. 

What Fernando's point was, it shows the Big 3 have become so myopic, that it doesn't matter what SL, NZ, SA, WI, etc players achieve. The global cricket media has gone Big 3 mad. Which is odd, cos England and Aus are 4th and 5th right now... afterall. The levels of ignorance to non-Ashes or non-Indian series is just overwhelming.