Jacks’ Ashes was not all fairytale proposals below Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Off the field, he was one of the England players plastered across the front page of the Australian newspapers with a pint in hand in Noosa.
On it, he struggled with his two wickets in the third Test against Australia in Adelaide costing 212 runs. Across the series he took six wickets for 394 runs.
Jacks’ stubborn batting in Australia did show a side of his game that hinted at promise and now he is thriving as England’s T20 man for all seasons.
Backed by Brook on Sunday he was asked to open the bowling for England for the first time since a match against Australia in Barbados at the last T20 World Cup.
That day, after what Jos Buttler later described as a “gut feel”, Aussie opener Travis Head – the man who cut and pulled him into submission in Adelaide – sent him onto the Kensington Oval roof in an over that cost 22 runs. England’s campaign never recovered.
This time his opening over cost only four, even that a boundary courtesy of a misfield.
Brook said it was a “last-minute” decision to give Jacks the new ball, the logic being that with a shorter boundary to the left-handed Kamil Mishara’s leg side it was better to have Jacks’ off-spin turning the ball away.
Typically, after that good first over, Jacks dismissed two right-handers in his next – the dangerous Kusal Mendis poking and chipping back a catch and Pavan Rathnayake charging and slicing a catch high to the off-side ring.
“Rathnayake’s been a very good player for them, and probably their best player of spin – the way that he runs down the pitch,” Brook said.
“To get him out first ball was a very crucial part in the game for us.”
Control was something often lacking with Jacks’ off-spin during the winter but here he delivered his most accurate spell.
Bowling four overs on the spin, he pitched 91% of his deliveries on the stumps or in the channel – the highest of any England match of his career.
His only bad ball, one which slipped from his sweaty hand, was pulled for six by Dasun Shanaka but later Jacks got his revenge by being the initial catcher in a brilliant relay grab with Tom Banton.
