As the year 2025 nears its end, cricket lovers from all around the world are highly anticipating a single series – The Ashes. While it means significantly more to England and Australia – the two main rivals locked in this historic rivalry, The Ashes also bears a lot of weight for global Test cricket aficionados. This time around, the Ashes is being played Down Under, where the hosts, Australia, have generally been much better than the tourists. The last three times England toured Australia for The Ashes, Australia won 4-0 (2021), 4-0 (2018), and 5-0 (2014).
This time, however, the English contingent, along with their fans and the Barmy Army, are more than confident of winning. England last won an away Ashes in 2009, when they beat Australia 3-1 in their own backyard. Former cricketer Stuart Broad believes this Australian side is perhaps the worst of the last decade and a half.
While England and their cricketing fandom are more than confident of beating Australia in Australia this summer, the first Test didn’t quite go well for them. There has been barely more excitement before the first Ashes Test match than there was this time around. Countless podcasts, both English and Australian, have done multiple episodes on the Ashes even before it began. It was all in preparation for hyping up the series before the first ball was bowled.
When the first Test eventually started, the excitement was rife. However, when it ended, there was a sour and unsatisfactory feeling from a neutral point of view. While the winners were happy, and the losers were sad, it wasn’t a great viewing experience for anyone since the match ended in 2 days. Here’s how it went down.
It was a fiery start to a fiery Ashes. Day 1 of the first Test match began with England winning the toss and choosing to bat. The Perth pitch was spicy, bouncy, and had enough pace to zip past your helmet without even seeing it. Australian speedster Mitchell Starc was ready with the ‘Red Cherry’ in his hand. Given Australia was playing without their premium fast bowler and captain, Pat Cummins, and with their other reliable pacer, Josh Hazlewood, missing, it was a make-or-break scenario for the other senior pacer in the group, Mitchell Starc. And Starc rose to the occasion like a ‘Phoenix from the Ashes’.
Australia bowled out England for a paltry 172 in the first innings, courtesy Mitchell Starc’s 7 for 58 in 12.5 overs. England faced only 32.5 overs to complete their first innings, and just like that, the Test match had barely begun, and one innings was over. The Test match still had the largest part left, and there were only 3 innings left. Australia had all the time to settle in, build partnerships, and then post a huge lead over England. But what followed was even quicker and more shocking.
The pitch still offered fiery pace and bounce, and England, with their crown fast bowlers such as Mark Wood, Joffra Archer, Brydon Carse, Gus Atkinson, and most importantly, their captain Ben Stokes, ripped through the Australian batting attack. They bore a hole into the Australian batting line-up and bowled them out for a meager 132. Stokes, the slowest of all English pacers, took a fifer (5 for 23 in 6.1 overs). 19 wickets fell on Day 1 itself.
No sooner had the 10th Australian wicket fallen than England started their innings on a pretty promising note. Even though they lost Zak Crawley cheaply to Mitchell Starc once again, England were 49/1 as the players went for Lunch on Day 2. There were only two sessions left on that day’s play. At that moment, if you’d have told me that the match would be over by Day 2 and one team would be on the losing side, and that team would be England, fiction writers would’ve brushed it aside by calling it ‘bonkers’. But that is exactly what happened.
England came out after Lunch on Day 2 with a positive intent, and the scoreboard read 65/1. They were 105 runs ahead and well on the verge of winning the first Ashes Test match. What happened from there can only be described as the collapse of the highest order. England capitulated from 65/1 to 88/6 in no time. From there, it was only a procession for the Australian quicks. They were 104/7, then 154/8, then 160/9, and finally 164 all out. The game took a momentous shift, and Australia needed 205 runs to win the Test match.
Given the up-and-down nature of the Perth pitch until then, most people still believed that England were ahead. Experts in the commentary box and pundits watching it from their homes, almost all thought England could still win from there, given their 5-pronged pace attack. Not only did they not win, but what followed was an innings that could only be described as a ‘Blitzkrieg,’ by Australia’s best all-format player, and one of world cricket’s best middle order batters, at the moment. It was the Travis Head storm at Optus Stadium in the last session of Day 2.
Since Usman Khawaja had a back injury, Travis Head decided to open the batting for Australia in their fourth innings. For a little while, Head struggled with the new ball as he settled in. Once he was settled, he was on song, and he looked like a man on a mission. Travis Head was hitting the ball to every single corner of the stadium. He peppered the English bowlers with boundaries and sixes, bringing up his century in 69 balls.
Australia wasn’t just chasing the score; they were cruising towards it. They only had one session to bat on Day 2, and the conditions had just gotten better for batting. Travis Head and co. made maximum use of those conditions. Head eventually got out for 123 off just 83 deliveries, but not before it was way too late for England to win the match. Even Marnus Labuschagne batted at a strike rate of more than 100, scoring 51 off 49 balls. Eventually, Australia chased 205 for the loss of 2 wickets in 28.2 overs. This was an epic chase, to say the least.
So, what’s next for England? This loss was a real head-scratcher for Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, as they basically just lost it in 2 sessions (Day 2 post-lunch sessions). In such a short-lived Test match, England dominated for most of it. But they still ended up on the losing side, that too by a comfortable margin of 8 wickets. It was a heavy loss, one they have to overcome to give themselves a fighting chance for the rest of the series.
There are still 4 more Test matches to be played in this series, and if England gets their strategy right and executes their plans properly, they might bounce back in the second Test, and possibly for the rest of the series. Given their track record in Australia, the last three times they have been there haven’t been good. So, that might play on their mind as well. It won’t be easy for England to bounce back, but if they pull all their weight together, they might secure a win in the next Test match.
The second Ashes Test between Australia and England begins on 4th December 2025, LIVE from The Gabba.
