 In this they were not helped by the hole left in English cricket by the Second World War, but only three players (Godfrey Evans, Trevor Bailey and Reg Simpson) were aged between 26 and 31 and could be said to be at their prime; nine of the players were 32 or more and six 26 or less.The captain Freddie Brown had last toured Australia in 1932-33 with Douglas Jardine and Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Denis Compton, Doug Wright, Alec Bedser and Godfrey Evans in 1946-47 under Wally Hammond; the rest of the team had never travelled down under.Bill Edrich who had made a gutsy 462 runs (46.20) in 1946-47 and would tour Australia again in 1954-55, but was out of favour at Lord's (he was being divorced, and such things counted in the 1950s) and had had an injury-struck season.