Ashes

Speaking prior to the news of Wood’s injury, former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie said he was “concerned about the robustness” of England’s attack.

“Do they have enough work in the bank to be fit and strong enough to bowl consistently high pace across the course of a whole match and then back it up in subsequent matches?” Gillespie told Stumped on BBC World Service.

“That is the big question mark for me.”

Wood’s absence would be keenly felt by England in the day-night conditions at the Gabba – a ground where they have not won since 1986.

England have a poor record in floodlit Tests, having won only two of their previous seven, including three defeats in Australia.

Australia have won 13 of their 14 day-night matches and, in Mitchell Starc, have the best pink-ball bowler in the world.

The pink ball does not behave differently to its red counterpart, but can be harder to see under lights.

Part of Starc’s success in pink-ball matches is the number of deliveries he bowls over 87mph and Wood, England’s fastest option, took nine wickets when he last played a day-night Test against Australia in Hobart in 2022.

Speaking on the For The Love of Cricket podcast, former England seamer Stuart Broad said: “There’s something about the pink ball, you just can’t pick it up quite as well. You get no clues as well, so the seam is black against the pink background, whereas with a red ball and white seam you might see Mitchell Starc’s in-swinger coming back into the stumps or scrambling around.

“It’s just the lights are reflecting off the pink ball so it’s almost like a big planet coming flying towards you.

“It means you’re just judging it from the movement off the surface or reading off the movement of the ball, but at such pace it’s quite difficult to do.”

England had given themselves an outstanding opportunity after four sessions of the first Test. At 65-1 in their second innings, the visitors had a lead of 105 runs.

But England lost their last nine wickets for 99 runs, including a calamitous spell of 3-0 when all of Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root were dismissed driving at the ball.

The collapse has led to more questions of England’s attacking style. Though Stokes pointed to the aggression of Australia’s Travis Head, who made the second-fastest century in Ashes history to lead the home side to victory, the England skipper accepted his team could have been “a lot better”.

“The important thing we need to do as a team and individuals is learn from it,” said Stokes. “We have identified those moments and spoken about them as a group.

“In terms of execution, could we have been better at executing what we want to do? Definitely.

“Sometimes when you go out there and make a decision, it doesn’t always pay off, or work the way you want it to. That’s the key for the rest of this tour, staying true to the beliefs of how we play our cricket, but also we do know we could have been a lot better in certain ways.”

England had won only one of their 17 previous Tests when Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum took over the in 2022.

The upturn in results and breathtaking style of cricket rebuilt a connection with supporters, a connection that has been tested in the past week. Many of those travelling to Perth spent vast sums of money, only to see England beaten in the first two-day Ashes Test for 104 years.

“We know that there’ll be a lot of disappointed fans after that first defeat,” said Stokes. But it’s a five-game series, we’ve got four games to go.

“We’ve lost the first one – we’re absolutely desperate to come home with that goal from before we started the series, which is to win the Ashes, and doing absolutely everything within our powers and using our time best to allow us to go out there and try and achieve that goal.”

Without Cummins and Hazlewood, Australia could field an unchanged attack for the pink-ball Test.

In Perth, left-armer Mitchell Starc took 10 wickets and was named player of the match. He was joined by fellow seamers Scott Boland and debutant Brendan Doggett, along with all-rounder Cameron Green and off-spinner Nathan Lyon.

Lyon struggled in Perth after being struck while batting by England fast bowler Mark Wood. If Australia decide to omit their frontline spinner in Brisbane, his replacement would be either seamer Michael Neser or all-rounder Beau Webster.

Khawaja’s place is under scrutiny after he was not fit to open the batting in either innings in Perth.

In the second innings, Travis Head was promoted from number five and struck one of the all-time great Ashes hundreds to lead Australia to victory.

If Khawaja is left out on his home ground, it would leave the door open for Josh Inglis, who made a hundred for a Cricket Australia XI against England Lions on Monday.

Australia have not lost an Ashes Test in Brisbane since 1986. They have lost only one of their 14 previous pink-ball Tests and have beaten England in all three Ashes day-nighters.

England opted against sending any of their first-Test XI to play in a two-day pink-ball match between England Lions and the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, starting on Saturday.

The tourists have arranged two extra training sessions in the run-up to the second Test.

They will return to practice at Allan Border Field on Saturday, when captain Ben Stokes is due to speak to the media.

There was a time in the middle of the previous decade when Australian pitches offered next to no encouragement for bowlers.

On England’s Ashes tour of 2017-18, the fourth Test in Melbourne yielded more than 1,000 runs for only 24 wickets. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was given a warning by the International Cricket Council for what the governing body deemed a ‘poor’ surface.

Since England last visited Australia in 2021-22, pitches have given much more to the bowlers.

For the past four years, pitches in this country have been rated as faster, bouncier and more inconsistent than anywhere else in the world. Pace, bounce and inconsistency is the perfect recipe for tough batting.

At this point, it is worth stating there is a subjectivity to what constitutes a ‘good’ pitch.

Quite often, a pitch can be described as ‘good’ when it is friendly for batting, yet that does not always produce the most thrilling spectacle.

Perhaps it is better to describe a ‘good’ pitch as one that produces an even contest between bat and ball.

Pitches also change over the course of a Test, offering different challenges to batters and bowlers as a match progresses.

Take the first Ashes Test as an example. In the first three innings, the highest total was 172 and batting looked devilishly difficult.

In the final innings, Australia’s run chase, Travis Head made a target of 205 look minuscule. The run chase could have been much more difficult on the fifth day of a Test, when a pitch would be at its oldest and most worn.

Because of the rapid nature of the first Test, Head was batting on the second evening, when the pitch may have been at its best for run-scoring.

“The pitch was brilliant,” said former Australia opener Simon Katich on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“For Australia to chase 200 for the loss of two wickets summed it up. In Australia if you can wear the new ball down you will score quickly from 40 to 50 overs. England weren’t able to do that and paid the price.”

During a Test against South Africa, Smith admitted Australia’s “leadership group” devised a plan to tamper with the ball.

Former opener David Warner taught batter Cameron Bancroft how to use sandpaper to rough up the ball, and Bancroft was then caught doing so by TV cameras during play. Both men were also banned along with Smith.

Smith made his comeback after the ball-tampering episode in the 2019 Ashes Test at Edgbaston and has been booed repeatedly since.

England fans also base taunts on his tearful news conference in 2018.

“We did the wrong thing, accept it and move on,” Lehmann said.

“You try to move on the best you can. You get reminded every day and that is part and parcel.

“Steve Smith can hold his head high with how he handles everything.

“The Barmy Army should be better than that. Most of them are and are very supportive of what goes on in the game.”

England are not a bad cricket team. They are a good cricket team that can occasionally be a thrilling cricket team. They are also a stubborn, maddening and slow-learning cricket team.

Many of the worst, most painful defeats since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took charge have been self-inflicted.

In Wellington in 2023, England made New Zealand follow on, and lost. In the Ashes of the same year, England declared on day one at Edgbaston, then had the benefit of Nathan Lyon limping off Lord’s. They lost both.

The following year, away to India in Rajkot: 224-2 in reply to 445, with Ravichandran Ashwin out of the match to attend a family emergency. England lost. In July of this year, England needed 73 more to pull off a record chase against India at The Oval with Harry Brook and Joe Root at the crease making hundreds. England lost.

It is great the Bazballers have form for backs-to-the-wall run chases, but it’s just as good to win from a position of dominance. Stokes often says he does not like the word “ruthless”. Perhaps it is because his team are not.

The most galling part of this defeat is what it could have done to Australia.

The West Australian newspaper harangued England through Perth airport, called them crybabys, arrogant and cocky. It only took one ropey first-day performance from Australia for the West Australian to turn on them.

Lyon was limping again. There were whispers Australia had picked the wrong team. Knives were out for Usman Khawaja and his dodgy back. Now Khawaja is a national hero for allowing Head to open the batting.

Stand-in captain Steve Smith might have been asked why he had rehearsed a monologue about Monty Panesar’s appearance on Mastermind. Instead he sat at the post-match news conference as a winning skipper, literally slapping Head on the back. It had echoes of eight years ago in Brisbane, when Smith and Cameron Bancroft laughed through the Jonny Bairstow headbutt incident.

Now Australia go to the second Test in Brisbane, played in a day-night format they hardly ever lose. The hosts have the luxury of not rushing Pat Cummins’ return.

Mitchell Starc, 10 wickets in Perth, has wizarding skills with the pink ball Harry Potter would be proud of.

Where do England go from here? They have been beaten so swiftly in Perth they have time to fly home, have a week off, then fly back to Brisbane for a round of golf and the second Test.

Australia bowled out England twice in 67.3 overs in Perth. Not since 1904 have England survived so few deliveries in losing a Test.

Listening to Stokes and McCullum, it appears one place the bulk of the Ashes squad will not be going is Canberra for a two-day pink-ball match between England Lions and the Prime Minister’s XI next weekend. England will rest in Brisbane instead.

The opportunity to tune up under lights will be largely passed in the name of unity and morale. England have only one training session under lights in Brisbane.

It would not be a surprise if England field the same XI in the second Test. The batters will be backed and the five-pronged pace attack looked on to something in the first innings in Perth.

Travis Head’s blistering century completes an astonishing eight-wicket win for Australia in the first two-day Ashes Test since 1921, as England suffer a crushing defeat in the first 2025 Ashes Test in Perth.

MATCH REPORT: Head leads Australia to crushing defeat of England

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England went down to a crushing defeat in the first Ashes Test after Travis Head’s blistering century completed an astonishing Australia fightback in Perth.

In the first two-day Ashes Test since 1921, Head dismantled the England attack with the second-fastest Ashes hundred of all time, made off only 69 balls.

Head’s 123 led Australia to their target of 205 in 28.2 overs – just a session of batting. An eight-wicket victory puts the home side 1-0 up in the five-match series.

It was a devastating and rapid turnaround by the home side, who gave up a first-innings lead of 40 and were 105 behind when England reached 65-1 just after lunch.

Led by Mitchell Starc’s 10-wicket haul, helped by some awful visiting batting, then pulling off a masterstroke to promote Head up the order, Australia extended English pain in this country. The record stands at 14 defeats and two draws in 16 Tests since 2011.

England lost six wickets for 39 runs in 11 overs. A horror spell of 3-0 in six balls accounted for Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root, ripping the guts out the middle-order.

Though Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse swiped a half-century stand, England were rolled over for 164 in 34.4 overs. They lost their last nine wickets for 99 runs.

Australia faced making the highest score of the match in order to win, only for Head to play one of the all-time great Ashes innings.

England were shellshocked. The pace bowlers that ran rampant over the Australia batters only 24 hours below were reduced to a rabble. The partisan Perth crowd revelled in the chaos.

The only question was whether the game would bleed into a third day. Head ensured England have extra time for a post-mortem before the second Test, a day-nighter in Brisbane, begins on 4 December.

England’s second innings gets off to a familiar start as Mitchell Starc takes a “brilliant” diving catch of his own bowling to dismiss Zak Crawley for a duck in the first over again on day two of the first Ashes Test in Perth.

FOLLOW LIVE: The Ashes first Test – day two

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Mitchell Starc takes the wicket of Zak Crawley, who’s caught behind by Usman Khawaja at first slip, for a duck as England fall to 0-1 at the end of the first over of the innings on day one of the first Ashes Test in Perth.

FOLLOW LIVE: The Ashes first Test – day one

Available to UK users only.

Coach Brendon McCullum believes his England team are ready for an Ashes series that could “define” them.

McCullum and captain Ben Stokes have revitalised the England Test team since taking charge in 2022.

The New Zealander said they have been “building to this moment”, with the first Test against Australia in Perth beginning on Friday (02:20 GMT).

In his only interview since arriving in Australia, McCullum told BBC Sport: “There’s nothing bigger than what we’re about to come into.”

Speaking to Test Match Special commentator and former England spinner Phil Tufnell, McCullum added: “This team has been together for a good couple of years and we have been building towards this moment.

“It is the biggest stage and it is the brightest lights. It is a series that could define teams, the people and players within it. That’s OK.

“You know you’re ready, you know you have the game to compete at this level. Stay together, play the style you have become accustomed to and we’ll see in a couple of months where we land.”

England are due to confirm their XI for the first Test on Thursday, with spinner Shoaib Bashir likely to miss out from the 12-man squad named on Wednesday.

That would mean the tourists will field a five-man pace attack, probably the fastest group of bowlers they have ever put together for a Test match.

“I’m super excited and probably a little bit more relaxed now than I was a few weeks ago,” said former New Zealand captain McCullum.

“We’ve got our team to the start line. I feel like our horse is going to run well. Whether we find another horse in the race that is better than us, who knows.”

England had won only one their previous 17 Tests, including a 4-0 defeat on their last Ashes tour, when McCullum and Stokes united in the summer of 2022.

They revolutionised England’s style of play, built a new team with a number of young players and earned impressive series wins at home against New Zealand and South Africa, then again against the Kiwis and Pakistan.

But England have not managed a victory in a marquee five-Test series against either Australia or India, including a 2-2 draw in the last home Ashes in 2023.

England have not won a single Test in Australia since their last series win in this country 14 years ago. Only five England teams have won Ashes series in Australia since World War II.

The shiny new Optus Stadium replaces the famous WACA – or Western Australian Cricket Association Ground – as the premier Test venue in Perth and will host the first Test of the 2025-26 series.

Perth has hosted plenty of memorable Ashes moments, with metal bats, blistering centuries and rare England wins all featuring in our quiz.

Although a number of England Ashes triumphs at home and abroad have been built on pace, they have never fielded as many express pace bowlers in the same team.

The side that won at home in the famous series of 2005 included Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff.

Raymond Illingworth’s triumphant visitors to Australia in 1970-71 had Bob Willis, Peter Lever and John Snow, and the England team that won in 1954-55 included Brian Statham and Frank ‘Typhoon’ Tyson.

Perhaps England’s most famous Australian tour of all, the 1932-33 Bodyline series, caused diplomatic tensions between the two countries for a short-bowling plan designed to unsettle the great Don Bradman.

On this occasion – one of the most eagerly anticipated Ashes series in recent memory – England are looking to reverse an awful record – they have not won a Test in Australia since 2011.

Only five members of the 16-man squad have played a Test in Australia, but Atkinson says that could work in England’s favour.

“It could be an advantage,” he told BBC Sport. “There are a lot of players who have said they have had some tough times here in Australia.

“For us, we are a very relaxed, very positive group. No scarring. It’s very exciting. We all see it as a huge opportunity to do something special.”

Australia’s net session on Wednesday was briefly delayed by the threat of lightning.

The home side are expected to give a debut to opener Jack Weatherald, with uncapped pace bowler Brendan Doggett also coming in following injuries to captain Pat Cummins and and fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood.

In that first Test of 2010 we conceded a first-innings deficit of 211 runs. 35,000 Australians were stamping their feet in the vast concrete stadium baying for English blood in a procession toward another Australian win.

Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott famously pushed back against the noise to amass 517-1 in our second innings. The Test was drawn, but it felt like we had won.

You could feel the rhetoric towards us change. The people who had taken great joy in telling us we were going to be annihilated were slowly starting to say how they respected the way we had fought back and that they loved seeing the competition.

Planning is important, but so is living in the moment. Too many times England teams have gone to Australia with pre-conceived ideas about the conditions they are going to face.

Being able to read the conditions and adapt is crucial. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2010, David Saker, the England bowling coach, had absolute conviction bowling first was the way to win the Test.

We bowled Australia out for 98 and won by an innings. Being bold with decision-making will serve England well.

Finally, luck is also a huge part of being successful in Australia.

In 2010 Australia didn’t have a set spinner, there were question marks around the great Ricky Ponting coming towards the end of his career and uncertainty about the seam bowlers.

Australia picked a 17-man squad for the first Test, more players than we had for the entire three-month tour to the country. Catching Australia in a period of transition can be critical.

On this occasion, injuries to Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have given England an opportunity to face an Australia team with the cracks maybe just starting to show for the first time since 2010.

There are many challenges that come with playing in an away Ashes series, on and off the field.

The stars may just be aligning for England to have a real crack at winning in Australia for the first time in 15 years.

Smith’s form dipped slightly between June 2023 and December 2024 when he went 23 innings without a Test hundred, but he made two against India last winter and hit 141 and 131 against Sri Lanka at the start of 2025.

After a two-month break, he began his build-up to this year’s Ashes in late October and scored 118 in his first innings.

“To win the series, we have to keep him [his average] to under 50, don’t we?” Broad said.

“He’s gonna score a hundred, it’s what he does.

“[If] he averages 40, that’s at least 15 under his career average, so you’re doing brilliantly. I think you have to get him early.

“If England aren’t celebrating in his first 40 runs, it’s going to be a long series.”

England have had various plans to counter Smith’s unconventional technique over 14 years of Ashes series.

Broad spoke of developing a new outswinger for Smith before the 2023 series while England have targeted Smith’s pads, bowled wide of off stump and even bowled for catches at leg gully in 2019 – a series Smith began with twin hundreds at Edgbaston.

“I remember Jason Roy was fielding there at leg gully, and he was diving left and right for the first 30 balls, just missing him there, just missing him there,” Broad said.

“Smith got away, got two hundreds in that game, unbelievable innings.”

Broad added: “I remember sitting in a bowlers’ meeting about Steve Smith in 2017-18 and they were like ‘oh, you could try and attack his stumps early’.

“‘Oh yeah, can we just click on how many times he’s been bowled in Australia in the last five years?’ Once.”

The upcoming series, which begins in Perth on Friday (02:30 GMT), looks set to see Smith face Jofra Archer for the first time in Tests since 2019, when he was famously unsettled and struck by a bouncer during the England paceman’s fierce spell at Lord’s.

Smith has always been keen to point out Archer did not dismiss him in that Test – he had to retire hurt and was out lbw to Chris Woakes on his return – though Archer did have the right-hander caught on the pull in a one-day international in 2024.

“Can Jofra Archer be that guy?” Broad said. “Nicking him off from back of a length, just chasing it.

“Because Jofra Archer has that angle of nipping back towards the stumps, can he nip one away? Smith’s looking for the nip-backer.”

Boland looked likely to be a reserve to the first-choice Australia pace attack in this series, but will now be in the Australia XI for the opening Test following injuries to captain Pat Cummins and fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood.

Boland and Mitchell Starc will probably be joined by uncapped 31-year-old Brendan Doggett as the specialist seamers.

“Obviously you don’t want to be missing two great players like Josh and Pat,” said Boland.

“Our bowling stocks have been really strong for quite a while – no one has been able to break in.

“It’s going to be an exciting time. A new guy or two will get a look in. They’re not inexperienced guys. Brendan is 31 years old, he’s played a lot of first-class cricket and he knows his game. He knows what he’s going to need to do to express his skills out on the big stage.”

Cummins appeared to be bowling at full pace in the nets on Monday as he builds towards a return for the second Test in Brisbane.

England’s method of attacking batting is going to be tested on what is expected to be a lively surface at Perth Stadium.

The tourists’ stroke-makers will also have to adapt to vast playing areas at Australian grounds, much larger than the Test venues in the UK.

“I’m sure it will help us,” said Boland, speaking at Perth Stadium. “Balls that would go over the fence in England have a longer way to go at grounds like here, the MCG and the Gabba in Brisbane.

“It’s the same for them. Their bowlers when they bowl their short balls, you have to hit it 85 metres instead of 65, so it’s a big difference.”

England coach Marcus Trescothick says he has full confidence in Joe Root to perform against Australia in the Ashes, despite the fact the batter has never scored a century down under during an away Ashes series.

READ MORE: Why has Root never made a century down under?

After launch there was the question of how to fill the days at sea.

“In my case, you eat,” says Larter. “Honestly, I’ve never had, either before or since, such a sustained spell of magnificent eating.

“The stewards loved us. They’d bring these great trolleys of wonderful food, and they knew we’d eat it.”

With copious amounts of food available and an Ashes series to prepare for, the players had to keep fit.

“We’d have an exercise session in the morning, then there were badminton courts netted off for us. We’d shove weights about, and jump up and down and things like that,” says Larter.

The England management wanted to take things a stage further.

By chance, Dexter found that British athlete Gordon Pirie was on board. Pirie won 5,000m silver at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

“He was invited to organise us,” says Larter. “He turned up with his shorts on and decided the best exercise would be running around the boat.

“It’s quite a long way around one of those big boats, but I did what I was told.”

Not everyone in the touring party was as agreeable as Larter. Trueman, never shy of speaking his mind, had just bowled more than 1,100 overs in the English summer.

“Fred voiced an opinion which meant in no way was he running around,” says Larter. “That just wasn’t what we did to get fit. To get fit, we played cricket.

“Fred said he’d just bowled all those overs in the season, and he wasn’t going to run around a boat for anyone. The Gordon Pirie thing died off after that.”

For Larter, the trip was not just a first England tour, but a first time out of the country. On the upper deck he mixed with the wealthy travellers, lower down he encountered the Poms emigrating to a new life down under.

“We found the greatest reception came downstairs,” he says. “There were people emigrating or moving for all sorts of reasons. A lot of them were young, out to make new lives. It was interesting to meet them. There were more than a couple of decent bars and you could have a quiet pint.”

The journey was not a straight passage to Perth. Remarkably, England tuned up for a tour of Australia by hopping off in Sri Lanka to play a game in Colombo.

“We walked out on to the field and Ted Dexter said I would be opening the bowling,” says Larter.

“I marked out a run, ran in, and fell flat on my face. A real sprawler. I picked myself up, went back, came in again and did the same thing.

“I’d lost my land legs. They weren’t going where I wanted, because I’d been on the boat.

“Ted came across and said ‘what’s wrong?’. I said they don’t work! He took me off. Barry Knight had to finish the over.

“We were entertained and looked after by the British Army. They put on a big barbecue on the beach for us. How do you get to that from a small town in Suffolk? On the beach in Sri Lanka with all of these nice people. It was an eye-opener, just being there.”

England squad: AJ Brimson, Joe Burgess, Daryl Clark, Herbie Farnworth, Tom Johnstone, Mikey Lewis, Harry Newman, Mikolaj Oledzi, George Williams (capt), Harry Smith, Mike McMeeken, Jez Litten, Matty Lees, Kai Pearce-Paul, Kallum Watkins, Morgan Knowles, Owen Trout, Alex Walmsley, Morgan Smithies.

Australia XIII: Reece Walsh, Mark Nawaqanitawase, Kotoni Staggs, Gehamat Shibasaki, Josh Addo-Carr, Cameron Munster, Nathan Cleary, Patrick Carrigan, Harry Grant, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Angus Crichton, Hudson Young, Isaah Yeo (captain).

Interchanges: Tom Dearden, Lindsay Collins, Reuben Cotter, Keaon Koloamatangi.

Reserves: Bradman Best, Lindsay Smith, Mitchell Moses.