Going into the sixth test at the Oval, all England could hope for was to salvage some pride in the form of at least a solitary test win. However the hosts had looked unlikely to challenge the tourists for all but a few sessions during the whole series. England made two more changes, the introduction of debutants Alan Igglesden and John Stephenson, but the picks seemed more likely to have come from the chance to expose them to the top level rather than hope that they might prove competitive against a clearly superior Australian side. Australia remained unchanged since the second test.