Once again another disappointing adaptation of a non-American sport
The Ashes is no different - The game play is essentially the crappy old timed hitting and inconstant difficult that games like MLB Baseball faced about 10 years ago. The focus being on the game play only and no consideration to other aspects of the game like statistics, career and franchise modes. The Ashes is a simple play and forget game which will keep the average Cricket fan occupied for no more than 10 hours before they realise that none of their hard work batting for 2 days in a Test Match is recorded or even remembered much past hitting the "off" button.
Die-hard Cricket fans will buy this and enjoy it for what it's worth but it won't something you'll be playing in 6-weeks when the boredom of the dull gameplay will find you looking for something better and hoping that it may turn up in some distant future Cricket release that will no doubt disappoint again. For those that have never experienced the depth of game play in American console games, it's best you don't - stick your head in the sand and enjoy the ever so slight incremental advances that companies like Codemasters keep delivering.