2025-26 Ashes

VillaMad · 19-11-2025 02:10PM #1

First Test: 21-25 November, Perth (+8 hours to Ireland)
First Session: 2:20am-4:20am - Second Session: 5am-7am - Third Session: 7:30am-9:30am

Second Test: 4-8 December, Brisbane (Day/Night Test match) (+10 hours to Ireland)
First Session: 4am-6am - Second Session: 6:40am-8:40am - Third Session: 9am-11am

Third Test: 17-21 December, Adelaide (+10.5 hours to Ireland)
First Session: 11:30pm-1:30am - Second Session: 2:10am-4:40am - Third Session: 5am-7am

Fourth Test: 26-30 December, Melbourne (+11 hours to Ireland)
First Session: 11:30pm-1:30am - Second Session: 2:10am-4:40am - Third Session: 5am-7am

Fifth Test: 4-8 January, Sydney (+11 hours to Ireland)
First Session: 11:30pm-1:30am - Second Session: 2:10am-4:40am - Third Session: 5am-7am

Australia squad for the First Test: Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Josh Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad for the First Test: Ben Stokes (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Mark Wood

Royale with Cheese · 19-11-2025 02:18PM

I wonder will my two year old tolerate watching cricket at 6.30am instead of Peppa 🤔

Strumms · 19-11-2025 02:51PM

England have a 16 man Ashes squad. So why a couple of days before the start of the Ashes do you want to announce the match day squad of 12 ? WTF is the actual point of that ? Surely that gives a little bit of assistance to the Aussies ? They can cross off 4 names and just exclusively focus discussing and planning tactics around the announced 12 instead of 16…Bizarre again from Englands leadership…why not keep Aussies guessing, doubt is good !

Aussies are without two of their star bowlers, Cummins and Hazlewood, why give the Aussie camp anything from the get go ? Aussie press don’t like it…so what ?!

Gillespy · 19-11-2025 04:56PM

England have to make hay with no Hazlewood and Cummins and the general kind of disarray Australia are in with their top order. Can't go into day/nighter in Brisbane one down with Australia's great record in them. To have any chance of taking the series past Christmas they need to win in Perth and reopen a few wounds in Khawaja and Labuschagne.

Good point I saw somewhere was how England won both games when Bumrah played and lost two when he was out. Speaks to complacency and not respecting the second string bowlers. Doggett will be hoping they do that again.

InsideEdge · 19-11-2025 09:51PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124001011#Comment_124001011

The Australian team is already known and this idea that you can keep teams guessing by not releasing a team until just before the start is nonsense in this day and age.

Strumms · 20-11-2025 01:35AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124002105#Comment_124002105

it’s not known, 😉. they are dealing with some injury issues to seamers and in addition form issues in the middle order batting. There has been no announcement of their team, speculating fine but it isn’t at all correct to say the team is ‘known’…

There is even media speculation both in England and Australia that Labuschagne will open as he sometimes does in domestic cricket.

VillaMad · 20-11-2025 03:03AM

Australia have confirmed their side:
Usman Khawaja, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith (capt), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Brendan Doggett

Strumms · 20-11-2025 03:14AM

ahh so two debutants, Doggett and Weatherald.

Weatherald is 31. Averages 37.47 in FC cricket. Not in the best FC form. Last 8 innings he only has 3 half centuries. No tonnes.

Doggett is also 31 but he’s in the wickets at the minute over there.

Gillespy · 20-11-2025 08:39AM

Another left hander which will please Jofra. His overall record is meh but has been impressive recently considering how difficult run making is in Australia these days. He is an opener by trade so far better than them trying McSweeney there last year. Plus it allows Labuschagne to bat in his best position. Tough on Webster, they must be confident in Green's fitness to bowl but they have Lyon to cover.

England usually win the team announcement race by at least a day, shows they're not confident in Wood's fitness or Bashir's form.

InsideEdge · 20-11-2025 09:23AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124002464#Comment_124002464

The team is as known last week and Labuschagne was never going to open, particularly once Weatherald was confirmed in the squad.

MFPM · 20-11-2025 10:48PM

So the day finally arrives!

The Ashes in Australia is a strange experience from this side of the world - watching cricket in blazing sunshine, while we're in winter darkness and freezing temperatures!

It's tough to call this series, with not much separating the top 3-4 test teams right now—India still probably edging it, despite their recent defeat. England and Australia though, are close behind. Australia, probably start as favourites given they're at home and England's record in Australia, but England do have a real shot I believe.

Australia, missing Cummins and Hazlewood, and their batting line-up looks fragile. The first test is a big chance for England—it’s not the Gabba first up, which helps, and the weather seems mild. With Australia missing two key players, it really could go either way.

It's genuinely hard to predict the final score. With a draw a possibility along the way - a 2-2 outcome feels possible, but I think Australia will take it 3-1 or or 3-2 (if no draw). This is a huge series for Australia, it’s probably the last Ashes for Smith, Starc, Hazlewood, Khawaja, Lyon, and probably Cummins and Labuschagne too — that's a lot of change ahead.

Strumms · 21-11-2025 01:24AM

forecast now looking good for all five days, was day 3 or 4 , I forget which that a couple of days ago was forecast to see quite a lot of rain that would have curtailed or maybe prevented any play. This set up nicely now for a result. You win the toss you bat first. Article I’m reading saying all 5 tests at this newish venue have been won by the side batting first. Australia have won 4 out of 5 tests played here…and I’m seeing by fairly significant margins too.

Can’t wait, is it 02.15 yet ? 👀🙈

VillaMad · 21-11-2025 01:31AM

I was thinking 4-1 Australia as England after all haven't won a test match in their last 3 tours (13-0 to Australia), so it would be an achievement for England just to win a test match there. Injuries to Cummins and Hazlewood however are huge though and if England don't win this test match in Perth, they are in big trouble.

I think the worries about Australia's batting has largely been allayed with Marnus returning to form and having Head, Green and Carey in the middle order is pretty decent. Khawaja and Weatherald certainly don't spark fear into England, but I think with Smith as good as ever, Australia will be good enough with the bat. Boland and Starc will be as tough as ever to face and we'll see what Doggett brings as Australia don't like handing out debuts generally. Cummins looks good to come back for the second test, so he will play the majority of the series. Hazlewood having a muscle injury is not a good sign for a guy with plenty of miles on the clock and I reckon Australia will have to be cautious with him.

England's batting tends to blow hot and cold and it often frustrates me watching them that they can get in really good positions and their players just throw away their wicket. Brook in particular is as talented as anyone and so often he hits the ball up into the air out of nowhere and whilst that approach can be thrilling, it also keeps the opposition in the game. Crawley should have been dropped a long time ago but he has been in the England team specifically to play this series, so we'll see whether he will reward the faith.

Their bowling strategy has gone to be an all-out pace attack which was ideal in Australia 5-10 years ago, but all the pitches now have a bit of nip in them. Their bowling hasn't been great obviously since the departures of Broad and Anderson and this team seems like it will be very reliant on special spells from Archer or Wood. How their fitness holds up along with Stokes who will be absolutely vital to their chances.

Hopefully it will be a close series to keep following as the last few have been very one-sided in Australia.

Strumms · 21-11-2025 01:52AM

England win toss and bat…..

Strumms · 21-11-2025 02:14AM

…….

MFPM · 21-11-2025 02:54AM

After a great start for Australia with Crawley falling in the first over, England have settled here, Boland being hit for a few, 23 off just 3 overs.

MFPM · 21-11-2025 02:59AM

Big wicket that for Australia, Starc removes Duckett lbw. Waste of a review too, ball no where near bat.

MFPM · 21-11-2025 03:11AM

Root gone for 0, Starc flying! Aus 39/3.

Strumms · 21-11-2025 03:12AM

Root gone without scoring. Poor shot, good bowling. Starc with 3 wickets in 4.5 overs. Feel England are donald ducked here.

MFPM · 21-11-2025 04:08AM

Green removes Pope in his fist over. Another review lost, 94/4.

Strumms · 21-11-2025 04:17AM

England just getting their recovery on track but umpires call does for Pope. In real time that looked to be going down and missing but according to DRS… it was clipping leg 👀.

Strumms · 21-11-2025 04:49AM

Only 23 overs in that first session. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Yes 4 wickets went down and a few DRS checks, numerous footwear issues for Aussie bowlers 👏🏼 … ffs rip a boot, spike issues….. get off the field, send in the 12th man and sort your footwear off the field .

5 down, ffs awful by Stokes, misses a good length straight ball that on replay neither seemed or swung... analysis now shows no deviation... wtf....

MFPM · 21-11-2025 05:14AM

Starc bowls Stokes - Eng 115/5…Brook looking OK, Smith in now.

MFPM · 21-11-2025 05:42AM

Bizarre, Brook having looked good is gone! Muted appeal from bowler and some fielders, Smith reviews and Brook walks, ball clearly off the glove. Doggett gets his first wicket. Eng 160/6.

MFPM · 21-11-2025 05:44AM

5 for Starc! Atkinson goes second ball…161/7.

Strumms · 21-11-2025 05:46AM

Brook was going great guns but gone playing a shocker of a shot, gloves a short delivery chest high down leg and hes caught behind.. Atkinson gone two deliveries later, poor batting again.. England in dire trouble now, lots of it of their own making..

MFPM · 21-11-2025 05:56AM

Carse taking on the short ball, caught in the deep by Labuschagne - 168/8. Not a great shot in the circumstances, the boundaries are big, there's been a good few 3s today with ball not reaching the boundary.

MFPM · 21-11-2025 06:01AM

Smith much like Carse, caught in the deep by Green - 6 for Starc - Eng 172/9.

Strumms · 21-11-2025 06:04AM

172 all out. England lasted a session and a bit… 👏 awful performance, technically and tactically .

MFPM · 21-11-2025 06:05AM

England all out for 172, not a great effort at all, some poor shots and batters giving away their wickets. Starc 7/58.

We can judge a bit better after Australia bat.

MFPM · 21-11-2025 06:27AM

Good start by Archer, getting the debutant Weatherald second ball. Not sure why Khawaja was off the field for so long.

2025-26 Ashes

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