England might have closed the gap in some key areas, but what is hard to quantify is the impact of Australia losing captain Meg Lanning for this series for medical reasons.
A titan with the bat – she averages 53.51 in one-day cricket – she has led Australia to unprecedented success as skipper and should be spoken about in the same breath as other great Australia captains like Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.
Her captaincy win percentage is a remarkable 80%, compared to the 55% success rate of her replacement in this series, Alyssa Healy.
Australia have also lost their head coach, Matthew Mott, and influential batter Rachael Haynes (retired) in the last year.
Mott, who is now the head coach of England men’s white-ball sides, has been replaced by Shelley Nitschke, with all-rounder Tahlia McGrath taking over from Haynes in the leadership group.
However, Blackwell said the loss of Lanning, while significant, has not been the main reason for the drawn series.
She said: “Meg has a different style to Healy, who is very fun and light-hearted, whereas Lanning is more ‘follow my lead’ and sets very high standards for herself and for others. It has been hugely successful for her, but I don’t think it is the difference.
“We saw Australia under pressure for moments in the Test, but Healy’s fearless style helped Australia at times.
“When she came out to bat in the second innings, Australia had lost a flurry of wickets and she was on a pair with two broken fingers – but she made a half-century from 60-odd balls. And that’s what Lanning has instilled in the team.
“They know they are never out of it until the very last ball; they will never give up. She is the ice-cool captain, but I haven’t seen a huge difference from that perspective between her and Healy.”
While Australia dropped more chances in this series than in recent years under Lanning’s stewardship, they still retained an edge over England in the fielding department.