The Ashes 25/26

[Jim05]

Even if Melbourne went the full five days - i.e. finishing at the end of Tuesday - it's still a complete joke that the Sydney test is scheduled to start on Sunday (i.e. Days 2-5 will be working days for many people) rather than a Saturday. Two or three days' break - fine. Four days' break - no thanks, let's get two weekend days in, rotate your squad if folks can't pull up.

I think the player contracts state that there must be 4 days break between tests.

[am Bays]

Even if Melbourne went the full five days - i.e. finishing at the end of Tuesday - it's still a complete joke that the Sydney test is scheduled to start on Sunday (i.e. Days 2-5 will be working days for many people) rather than a Saturday. Two or three days' break - fine. Four days' break - no thanks, let's get two weekend days in, rotate your squad if folks can't pull up.

They’re beholden to the calendar as both Tests are dictated by Boxing Day, but I get what you mean.

Nah RB has a point. It’s gradually pushed out previously it’s started on the 2nd, more lately on 3rd now the 4th which is strange given it is a Sunday

[dedja]

Even if Melbourne went the full five days - i.e. finishing at the end of Tuesday - it's still a complete joke that the Sydney test is scheduled to start on Sunday (i.e. Days 2-5 will be working days for many people) rather than a Saturday. Two or three days' break - fine. Four days' break - no thanks, let's get two weekend days in, rotate your squad if folks can't pull up.

They’re beholden to the calendar as both Tests are dictated by Boxing Day, but I get what you mean.

Nah RB has a point. It’s gradually pushed out previously it’s started on the 2nd, more lately on 3rd now the 4th which is strange given it is a Sunday

Facts? … pffffftttttt

[RB]

Even if Melbourne went the full five days - i.e. finishing at the end of Tuesday - it's still a complete joke that the Sydney test is scheduled to start on Sunday (i.e. Days 2-5 will be working days for many people) rather than a Saturday. Two or three days' break - fine. Four days' break - no thanks, let's get two weekend days in, rotate your squad if folks can't pull up.

They’re beholden to the calendar as both Tests are dictated by Boxing Day, but I get what you mean.

Nah RB has a point. It’s gradually pushed out previously it’s started on the 2nd, more lately on 3rd now the 4th which is strange given it is a Sunday

Three days' break I can cop. Four is madness when there's a Saturday just sitting there...

[am Bays]

News from CA

Next tears Boxing Day test will be at Docklands and Adelaide Oval Turf Management will be in charge of the pitch management

[Jim05]

lol
Keep sipping the Kool-Aid

“England should enjoy a release of the pressure that has built around it throughout this tour and take satisfaction, to a certain extent this is validation of its methods.”

[whufc]

lol
Keep sipping the Kool-Aid

“England should enjoy a release of the pressure that has built around it throughout this tour and take satisfaction, to a certain extent this is validation of its methods.”

Could say Australia are doing similar with a fair few in their batting line up.

Could be dark times on the horizon once all of Cummins, Starc, Lyon, Hazelwood can’t protect the batters

Even then the next in line most consistent performing bowlers are a 36 yo Boland and 35 yo Neser.

[The Dark Knight]

Aussie Sydney Test side in batting order

1.
2.
3.
4. Smith
5. Head
6
7. Carey
8 Neser (only on his 1st innings here)
9 STARc
10
11. Boland

Usman and Marnus have to go, they will give Jake one more test i would think, Not sold on Green at all. Inglis is not test standard, although Heads getting runs at the top him not being at 5 leaves a huge hole at the minute.

Can you play Webster, hasn't played any cricket as such in 4 to 5 weeks

Assuming you'd want Webster at 6 then who do you have at 1, 2 and 3 then if you want Khawaja, Labuschagne and Green gone? Weatherald to continue to open? All well and good to have players dropped but who would you have replacing them?

[Armchair expert]

Aussie Sydney Test side in batting order

1. Renshaw Farewell
2. Khawaja
3. Prime Ricky Ponting
4. Smith
5. Head
6 Lehmann
7. Carey
8 Neser (only on his 1st innings here)
9 Doggett Starc rested
10 Murphy
11. Boland

[Brodlach]

Aussie Sydney Test side in batting order

1. Renshaw Farewell
2. Khawaja
3. Prime Ricky Ponting
4. Smith
5. Head
6 Lehmann
7. Carey
8 Neser (only on his 1st innings here)
9 Doggett Starc rested
10 Murphy
11. Boland

Boof coming out of retirement? He’d still be a better option than Jake

[Aerie]

More questions than answers from this series. Ashes won by Starc, Head and Carey with some cameos from Boland, Cummins and Neser.

A little bit in the pitch and we see two Test matches done inside 2 days. Poor quality cricket.

Surely Webster gets his chance back in the side? Everyone else has had a go...

SCG Test
Head
Weatherald (needs runs)
Labuschagne (needs runs)
Smith
Khawaja (farewell Test)
Carey
Webster
Neser
Starc
Murphy
Boland

A massive schedule coming up. England were unable to expose our weaknesses this summer, but surely South Africa and India away over the next 14 months will.

August '26 - 2 Tests vs Bangladesh in Northern Australia
September - 3 Tests in South Africa
Oct/November **One Day & T20 Series England in Australia - we should be playing our 2nd XI and concentrating on the Sheffield Shield**
December/January - 4 Tests vs NZ in Australia
January/February '27 - 5 Tests in India
March - 150th Test Match Anniversary vs England at MCG (with 7mm of grass on the pitch)
June - WTC Final if we qualify

[stampy]

here are damning stats about our batting in our last 3 innings

adelaide lost 6/38 in our 2nd dig, 4/311 to 349 all out
melbourne 1st innings 4/9, 6/143 to all out 152 2nd innings, 7/49, 3/83 to all out 132

they are terrible stats

[Jim05]

More questions than answers from this series. Ashes won by Starc, Head and Carey with some cameos from Boland, Cummins and Neser.

A little bit in the pitch and we see two Test matches done inside 2 days. Poor quality cricket.

Surely Webster gets his chance back in the side? Everyone else has had a go...

SCG Test
Head
Weatherald (needs runs)
Labuschagne (needs runs)
Smith
Khawaja (farewell Test)
Carey
Webster
Neser
Starc
Murphy
Boland

A massive schedule coming up. England were unable to expose our weaknesses this summer, but surely South Africa and India away over the next 14 months will.

August '26 - 2 Tests vs Bangladesh in Northern Australia
September - 3 Tests in South Africa
Oct/November **One Day & T20 Series England in Australia - we should be playing our 2nd XI and concentrating on the Sheffield Shield**
December/January - 4 Tests vs NZ in Australia
January/February '27 - 5 Tests in India
March - 150th Test Match Anniversary vs England at MCG (with 7mm of grass on the pitch)
June - WTC Final if we qualify

Plus the Ashes in England start just weeks after the WTC

[The Dark Knight]

Day 2 Stats- https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/engl ... cg-1517262

5468 Days between England's previous win in Australia and their victory at the MCG on Saturday. Since their win at the SCG in January 2011, England had played 18 Tests in Australia and lost 16, the joint-longest winless streak for any team in Australia.

3 Bilateral series with more than one Test ending inside two days before the 2025-26 Ashes. Australia's tour of England in 1888 had three such matches, while England's tour of South Africa in 1888-89 and 1895-96 also had two Tests that ended in two days. The 1912 triangular tournament, hosted by England featuring Australia and South Africa, also had two two-day Test matches.

Only two of the 450 men's Test matches in Australia before this Ashes had ended in two days - the Melbourne Test against West Indies in 1931 and the Brisbane Test against South Africa in 2022.

479 Balls Australia batted in the Melbourne Test - their fewest in a match since the Brisbane Test in the 1928 Ashes, when they were bundled out twice in 457 balls.

284 Runs scored by Australia in Melbourne, their second-lowest aggregate in a home Test since 1928, behind the 246 runs against South Africa in Hobart in 2016.

17 Tests Joe Root played in Australia without a victory until this MCG Test. Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori now holds the record for the most Tests in Australia without a win - 12. Ben Stokes also went 12 Tests in Australia without victory until the win in Melbourne.

46 Travis Head's score in the second innings in Melbourne was the highest individual score of the Test, making it only the fifth men's Test in Australia with no batter scoring a fifty. Overall, it is the 17th such Test in men's cricket.

1981 The last time a team won an Ashes Test without any of their batters scoring a fifty, England at Edgbaston. The Melbourne Test was the first that England won without an individual fifty since the Lord's Test against West Indies in 2000.

0 Overs bowled by spinners in Melbourne - the first such Test in Australia. The previous fewest balls bowled by spinners in a Test in Australia was 12 - in the 1984 WACA Test against West Indies. Nathan Lyon and Joe Root collectively bowled 18 balls in the Perth Test earlier this series, which is the third fewest.

39.02 Bowling strike rate in the five Tests played in Australia in 2025. It is the lowest strike rate for any host nation in a year with five or more Tests. The previous best was 43.8 in five Tests in South Africa in 2019.

Across their 11 Tests in 2025, Australia's bowlers had a strike rate of 36.7, the second best for a team in a year (minimum of five Tests) behind England's 32.7 in six Tests in 1896.

852 Number of balls in the Melbourne Test - the tenth fewest in a completed match - only five more than the Perth Test.

5571 Balls in the 2025-26 Ashes so far - the third fewest across the first four matches of a Test series. The first four matches of the 1902 Ashes had only 4675 balls, while the 1985-86 Wisden Trophy had only 5513 balls bowled in the first four games.

[jackpot jim]

More questions than answers from this series. Ashes won by Starc, Head and Carey with some cameos from Boland, Cummins and Neser.

A little bit in the pitch and we see two Test matches done inside 2 days. Poor quality cricket.

Surely Webster gets his chance back in the side? Everyone else has had a go...

SCG Test
Head
Weatherald (needs runs)
Labuschagne (needs runs)
Smith
Khawaja (farewell Test)
Carey
Webster
Neser
Starc
Murphy
Boland

A massive schedule coming up. England were unable to expose our weaknesses this summer, but surely South Africa and India away over the next 14 months will

Agree with most of this

Green needs to go and made to earn his spot back
Khawahja plays Sydney then needs to be tapped on the shoulder
Weatherald needs to be given an extended chance. Think he has looked good at times. Has deserved his chance and 2 of the 4 Tests have been on minefields. Crawley and Duckett are experienced openers and have struggled just as much to give it some perspective. Head is the exception but even he has come off a lean trot before this series. Khawahja has struggled for last 2 years as opener
With Khawahja surely giving it away and Smith as well in next year or 2, Australia needs Labuschagne around for the next 5 years to build a batting order around. He's almost worth his spot on his fielding alone. So for those that say he needs to go , i'm not sure who's out there you expect to do better?

Australia lead the series 3 - 1 with the Ashes retained but the way some are carrying on you'd think the scoreline was the other way around
Sure Australia havent played at their absolute best and England playing so bad at times have covered over the cracks a little but how often does a country have the PERFECT series? NZ beating India 3 - 0 in India was probably the last.
Think people need to stop expecting instant success from newcomers to Test Cricket.

As for the MCG Pitch - Obviously the Curator cant control how a match is played out but the pitch that is produced generally has a fair influence.
I'm thinking it was more of a 3 day pitch rather than a 2 day pitch but either way it simply wasn't up to scratch which is inexcusable imo.
Maybe if the series was still LIVE some batsmen from both teams may have been a little more committed to dig in for longer tho thats easy to say from this side of the fence.

[mighty_tiger_79]

The pitch was fine.

Batsmen need to learn how to be a little more disciplined.

The next 3 days the current squad need to just watch how players like AB would absorb time and balls. Make the bowlers earn the wicket not just throw it away like a $1 temu gift.

[whufc]

More questions than answers from this series. Ashes won by Starc, Head and Carey with some cameos from Boland, Cummins and Neser.

A little bit in the pitch and we see two Test matches done inside 2 days. Poor quality cricket.

Surely Webster gets his chance back in the side? Everyone else has had a go...

SCG Test
Head
Weatherald (needs runs)
Labuschagne (needs runs)
Smith
Khawaja (farewell Test)
Carey
Webster
Neser
Starc
Murphy
Boland

A massive schedule coming up. England were unable to expose our weaknesses this summer, but surely South Africa and India away over the next 14 months will.

August '26 - 2 Tests vs Bangladesh in Northern Australia
September - 3 Tests in South Africa
Oct/November **One Day & T20 Series England in Australia - we should be playing our 2nd XI and concentrating on the Sheffield Shield**
December/January - 4 Tests vs NZ in Australia
January/February '27 - 5 Tests in India
March - 150th Test Match Anniversary vs England at MCG (with 7mm of grass on the pitch)
June - WTC Final if we qualify

Yep that's the series summary right there.

[Booney]

These blokes have a lot to answer for, I've been told we're "doing something" today now the cricket has finished. FFS.

[am Bays]

These blokes have a lot to answer for, I've been told we're "doing something" today now the cricket has finished. FFS.

Press conference being held currently at the G with CEO and Director of Turf Management, you could ask a few questions of them.

For the fifth time though the best team that handled the conditions best, particularly yesterday, won

[mal]

QUESTION
Is it a trend to produce 'result' pitches to earn enough wins/points to play off in Test Championships ?