England’s most successful Ashes series Down Under for 15 years has somehow come to be seen as its most calamitous. England won a Test match, and competed for large periods in three of the other four. Yet many England fans are left wondering what might have been. Defeat in this manner is much more devastating than the repeated, predictable failures of earlier tours.
After England’s loss at Adelaide confirmed the Ashes would stay in Australia, Phil Tufnell turned to me and said ‘I really believed we had a chance this time. Were we deluded Dan?’
Before the Ashes, there were high hopes that a young, dynamic England side playing certainly imperfectly, but with confidence and braggadocio up against an aging Australia (with only one player below the age of 30) coping with injuries to two of their key bowlers, Josh Hazlewood (he played no part in the series) and their captain Pat Cummins (he played only one Test), could go all the way. Australia’s batting had been brittle for some time, with no settled top order, experienced players out of form (Marnus Labuschagne, Uswan Khawaja and Cameron Green) and their leading wicket taker, Nathan Lyon, largely ineffective on home pitches that have refused to assist spinners for a few years now.
By contrast, England had been building to this series with a top seven set in stone, and were bolstered by the apparent return to fitness of two of the fastest bowlers in the world, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. With Brydon Carse expected to flourish on Australian pitches and England captained by Ben Stokes, Australia surely was there for the taking.
On the first day of the series that prophesy looked a decent one. By lunch on day two, with England 105 ahead and only one wicket down in their second innings, they looked well placed to win at Perth for just the second time in history. What followed was a series defining disaster that unfolded in around four hours. It contained themes that would haunt England for the rest of the tour.
In just ten minutes and across six balls, England’s experienced middle order of Pope, Root and Brook all got out, rashly driving at balls that weren’t there for the shot. This was ‘Bazball’ at its most reckless and foreshadowed a series pockmarked by startlingly brainless dismissals. The intent to attack when every cricketing instinct demanded consolidation of a winning position was in keeping with the trite mantra of ‘run towards the danger’ that is so beloved of this squad. But the result was that by the end of the day, England’s bowlers were themselves victims of a quite brilliant smash and grab from Australia’s Travis Head.
Head blitzed England’s bewildered attack, bringing up his hundred in 69 balls. His domination didn’t stop there: Head amassed 629 runs across the series at a faster strike rate (87) than anyone to have compiled that many in an Ashes series. Curiously, the normally pro-active Stokes had no answer to Head as England’s bowlers repeatedly tested him out with short balls which he gleefully struck to all parts.
The captain and the team admitted to being shellshocked by that Perth result, but then headed to Brisbane. What unfolded there was troublingly familiar: England manoeuvred themselves into a decent position on the first day. But at the most threatening time of day under lights, Harry Brook chose to swipe mindlessly at his first ball from the tall left armer. In a crowded field of truly abysmal shots across the series, this was perhaps the most consequential. It brought in Stokes, always vulnerable to Starc. The resultant collapse left England 100 runs short of a good score, in a crucial Test at the most important moment. It was a deficit the team could not come back from.
To come back from two down and win the next three was always going to be a tall order. It’s been achieved once in Ashes history, by Australia in 1936/37 and they had Don Bradman. England’s response to this crucial inflection point in the series was to take a pre-planned extended break to the upmarket resort of Noosa in Queensland.
As my Barmy Army chum suggested, perhaps expecting England to win Test matches in Australia makes us certifiably insane
Is this the point when the tour irredeemably unravelled? I really don’t know, given how much better England performed on the field thereafter. Certainly the optics of players spending days on end filmed drinking in the same bar by the sea front were not good. The press had a field day. Was England taking this series seriously? Was it all just a giant stag party?
For my own part, I see the logic in the trip. These players tour constantly with barely any downtime. Had they been 2-0 up, would it have been seen as an entirely justified break from the relentless schedule? Probably. But they were 2-0 down. Should the management have been more on the case, knowing full well how hostile a media environment Australia is during an Ashes series? Almost certainly, but this is a management team that has prided itself on being largely hands off.
So to Adelaide and a must win-fixture. Despite losing the toss in perfect batting conditions, England restricted Australia to a below par 371. Jofra Archer bagged five wickets and with the pitch expected if anything to get better, this was their chance, but they blew it. Australia’s relentless accuracy with the ball, and bolstered by the return of their captain Cummins for this match only, saw England reduced to 168-8.
This was ‘Bazball’ at its most reckless
It was at this precise point, almost exactly halfway through the series, when England started to compete. Indeed from this point on, England went on to score more runs at a better average through the rest of the series than their opponents. A record ninth wicket partnership between Stokes and Archer hauled England to within 85 of Australia, but they couldn’t pull off the record run chase required, despite threatening on a few occasions. The loss, by 82 runs, can be attributed to a couple of terrible dismissals (Brook and Jamie Smith) and a scandalously malfunctioning ‘Snicko’ that reprieved Alex Carey, despite him clearly having got an edge through to the keeper. He would go on to make a hundred.
No doubt the Carey incident did fuel a sense of injustice, but in truth, England were always behind the game. Always about another hour of batting or two wickets with the ball away from getting on top. It was another match of ‘What ifs?’.
By now it was becoming increasingly clear that England’s players were being outmatched for fitness. Mark Wood had only managed the Perth Test before flying home injured. Now Jofra Archer, to this point England’s best bowler by far, would have to go home with a side strain. All the while, Mitchell Starc, nearly 36 years old, was bowling long spells that never let up in pace. Scott Boland was bashing out a length and never running out of puff. By contrast, Stokes was so dead on his feet in Adelaide that crucially he couldn’t bowl on the third day. Brydon Carse was struggling for rhythm and the lack of a specialist spinner meant Stokes couldn’t control an end.
For all the world it seemed obvious that England would lose the series 5-0, but on a spicy pitch in Melbourne, Bazball came good
For all the world it seemed obvious that England would lose the series 5-0, but on a spicy pitch in Melbourne, Bazball came good. Josh Tongue, who had mystifyingly been left out of the first two matches put in a player of the match performance. Ollie Pope, who had endured a hideous run of form after his promising first innings of the series, was dropped to make way for the Golden Boy of English cricket, Jacob Bethell; he would play a significant role in England chasing down an albeit modest target in the fourth innings.
The win at Melbourne was the first by an England team in Australia since January 2011. It should have been a cause for celebration, but instead posed more questions for the management. Where had Josh Tongue been at Perth and Brisbane? Why did Jacob Bethell spend the entire English summer carrying drinks and not playing either for his county or, until the last Test at The Oval, his country?
The overpowering sense of what might have been was only compounded 12 days later when Bethell produced England’s innings of the series; a near flawless 154 at Sydney in the final Test. With Joe Root once again getting a hundred, and Harry Brook making his customary good start before becoming a victim of his own poor shot selection, it was possible to discern why so many of us thought that this was England’s best chance in 55 years to regain the Ashes on Australian soil.
The fact is that England matched Australia for long periods of the series, but the most egregious errors were all England’s. Australia had a number of players who didn’t perform (Inglis, Green, Weatherald), but the ones that did most consistently were all Australian. Mitchell Starc was outstanding and his 18 wickets in the first two Tests set up Australia’s series win. Travis Head was by far the best batter on both sides, doing to England what Bazball was supposed to be doing to Australia. Alex Carey was spellbinding behind the stumps, standing up to Boland’s 85 mph and effecting some quite sensational dismissals. His keeping was light years ahead of Jamie Smith whom he also comprehensively outbatted.
Australia’s back-up bowlers, especially Michael Neser, never let their side down, maintaining a consistent, probing line and length.
England were not match fit, despite the denials of their management
By contrast, England were not match fit, despite the denials of their management. Aside from Archer, no bowler was truly able to give Stokes control. Selection was muddled. Why did Pope not get dropped earlier? Why did they not identify Tongue, whose 18 wickets in three matches cost just 20 runs each, as a key strike bowler earlier? And why on earth did he not take the new ball? And what of the non-selection of Shoaib Bashir? Fast tracked into the side, in Summer he became the youngest Englishman to take 50 wickets.
In the aftermath of most Ashes disasters, heads are made to roll. It isn’t clear if, despite the crushing disappointment of 2025/26, that will be the case this time. Stokes, despite seeming on occasion to depart from his coach’s mantras, has stated that he can’t see anyone else he would rather work with, and pretty much everyone is in agreement that they want Stokes to stay.
Perhaps Rob Key, managing director of England Men’s Cricket, will be the fall guy. He spoke reflectively in interviews with the BBC at what he could have done better, and he is ultimately responsible for England’s schedule and preparation.
Yet Key alone shouldn’t carry the can for what went wrong Down Under. Across the five matches, I saw a lack of stamina in England’s bowlers but also, critically, some of the most idiotic dismissals by set batters at crucial moments. The former can be solved by getting more match fitness in bowlers’ legs. How you stop your key, and hugely talented batters, from throwing away their wickets is an altogether more tricky problem, but I fancy that settled top seven from Perth will look substantially different when England next play a Test in June.
After England’s loss at Adelaide confirmed the Ashes would stay in Australia, Phil Tufnell turned to me and said ‘I really believed we had a chance this time. Were we deluded Dan?’ Despite the scoreline, despite the enervating stupidity of some of the cricket, I genuinely don’t think we were deluded. Then again, as a wonderfully phlegmatic Barmy Army fan said to me perhaps expecting England to win Test matches in Australia makes us certifiably insane.
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