Dan Jones: Make the most of this because England could soon be on a sticky wicket again

Andy Murray, who beat his nemesis Novak Djokovic this week — having previously lost to him eight times on the bounce — took the opportunity to reflect on the tennis gods’ lurching mood swings when he said: “Things can get better very quickly and they can get worse very quickly in sport.”

Murray has seen a lot in his life: he has been a champ, a chump and everything in between. When he talks it is worth listening. And in this instance, his words resonated far beyond tennis.

For nowhere has the Murray maxim been better illustrated in recent months (and years) than by the England Test cricket team.

Starting tomorrow at The Kia Oval, England have a decent chance of wrapping up the 2015 Ashes 4-1. To do so would be an unbelievably large and dribbly raspberry in the face of almost everyone among us who felt sure that Alastair Cook’s men would endure a hiding from Australia this summer.

It would also be an unprecedented cricketing achievement. Only four England sides have managed to win four or more Tests in an Ashes series before and none were at home.

Mike Brearley’s men won 5-1 during the Packer-depleted tour of 1978-79; Douglas Jardine’s Bodyline boys came home 4-1 winners in 1932-33 but were not universally celebrated for it; in 1928-29 a formidable side featuring Jack Hobbs, Wally Hammond and Harold Larwood won 4-1; a much younger Hobbs played alongside Wilf Rhodes in a side which did the same thing in 1911-12.

In the interest of fairness, we should say that the Aussies have won four or more in a series on 15 occasions, including three 5-0 whitewashings. But let the point stand: if Cook’s team do unto the opposition what they did at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, then at some point between now and next Tuesday they will have made history.

This is not to say that England are yet a great side — and there is no guarantee that they will grow up to become one, despite the reformed captaincy of Cook, the youthful peerlessness of Joe Root, a crunchy lower-middle order featuring Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali and an often unplayable swing bowling attack. Certainly, England will not achieve lasting success transferable beyond seaming home pitches unless they can find a world-class spinner and a permanent opening partner for Cook.

But they will nevertheless have done a great thing, and in the process proven that, yes, things can get better very quickly in sport.

Australia, alas, have proved the other side of the argument. Five-nil last time out and world ODI champions, suddenly they resemble 11 baggy green pussycats tied together in a sack.

Just as the last Ashes tour effectively stuck a fork in the careers of Jonathan Trott, Graeme Swann, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Andy Flower on the losing side, so this one has finished off Ryan Harris, Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers; it would be little surprise to see Brad Haddin and Shane Watson follow and perhaps Darren Lehmann as well.

That would not seem to leave Australia with much to build around: Steve Smith, David Warner and a few men called Mitchell doesn’t much resemble the core of a side destined to regain the Ashes in 2017-18. That seems all the more true in the context of an Australian media and public cast into the same mewling, apocalyptic, semi-rational hysteria that was convulsing us lot after the winter of 2013-14.

(On which note, the funniest newspaper story I have seen this year was published in an Aussie daily this month and argued, apparently seriously, that Mitchell Johnson was being bullied by the Barmy Army; it likened his barracking on this tour to the racist jeering endured by the AFL player Adam Goodes. Two words suffice here, which another Australian paper has in the past refused to print: Stuart Broad.)

Still, if experience tells us anything, it is that the pace of change in sport is rapid and unpredictable. Stocks go down as well as up; up as well as down. And as much as I wish and expect England to win at The Oval and record a historic 4-1 home Ashes win, let us remember that nothing lasts forever and enjoy it while we can.

If the answer is Sam Burgess, I honestly wonder what questions Stuart Lancaster has been asking himself. Yes, Burgess is big and committed. But as he admitted after a yellow card against France, he still doesn’t know all the rules of rugby union. Lancaster (right), meanwhile, has had four years to think about who his four best centres are and still he doesn’t have a clue. The World Cup is less than a month away. I hope he knows what he’s doing.

News from beyond The Wall is that St Johnstone defender Brad McKay has been charged with making an “offensive comment” for averring that a Spanish opponent who went down easily was a “typical foreigner”. I fear this latest word policing spells the death of football’s unique lingo. Sick as a parrot? Offensive to macaws. A relegation dogfight? A slur on all peace-loving dogs. Squeaky-bum time? Ungenerous to those who suffer for putting gerbils in their rectums. FFS.

“A game of very fine margins” — the chelseafc.com match report of their 3-0 defeat at Manchester City found hilariously biased ways of describing the drubbing by their title rivals. Fair enough: either they know no shame, fear their bosses or simply accept that they are preaching to the choir. Whatever it is, I think #veryfinemargins should now be an obligatory Twitter hashtag when discussing any trousering of three goals or more. Who’s joining in?

After winning the vote to be the new IAAF president, the first task for Lord Coe (left) is to speak honestly about the state of doping in world athletics. With London 2012 1500m champion Asli Cakir Alptekin the latest athlete to be stripped of her title and banned, there is no doubt the IAAF are working hard on busting cheats. But there remains a sense of denial about how widespread the problem appears to be. Until that changes, the public will doubt all they see before them.