A closer look at England’s losing run over last five Test series

England lost a fifth Test series in a row when the West Indies wrapped up the deciding third Test by 10 wickets on Sunday.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the losing run and the factors behind it.

England's last five Test series

Only once before have England lost five series in a row – and even that run, from 1992 to 1994, included a one-off Test in Sri Lanka as one of the “series”.

Pakistan won a five-Test series in England 2-1 in the summer of 1992, with a 3-0 defeat in India in early 1993 preceding March’s loss in Colombo. Australia won the Ashes by a dominant 4-1 scoreline that summer before a five-match tour of the Windies brought a 3-1 series defeat.

England lost four series in a row and six out of seven in 1998 and 1999, again featuring a single Sri Lanka Test, but in terms of multi-Test series their current run is the worst in their history.

Since winning the first Test in India last February, England have won only one of 17 Tests as they went on to lose that series 3-1 and lose 1-0 at home to New Zealand – with the second Test drawn – before India repeated their success with a 2-1 win in the return series in England.

Australia won the Ashes 4-0, prompting changes in the managerial positions and talk of a “red-ball reset”, but after some encouraging signs in a pair of flat-track draws in the Caribbean England were beaten by 10 wickets on the first pitch showing signs of life.

One final caveat remains, with the postponed fifth Test of the home India series to be played in July – win that game at Old Trafford and England will draw that series and retrospectively break the losing run.

That defeat in Grenada could have been even more emphatic but for Jack Leach and Saqib Mahmood’s last-wicket stand of 90 in the