The Ashes Tour of Australia 2025/26

A chaotic first day of the series with wickets tumbling all over the show.
Goodness knows what happens from here on in. Absolute carnage.

Just as an aside I put a bet on Alex Carey being top run scorer for either side in the series.
It will be interesting to see how that one plays out over the coming weeks.

A considered view after reflecting on the action of the first day comes with just a gentle reminder for the England batsmen to be mindful of both the state of the game and the field placings too. Especially at 160/5.
A smidgen or perhaps more than a smidgen of judicious thinking might be nice sometimes lads .

That is one crazy first day of an Ashes series first time since 1909 that 19 wickets have fallen on the first day.

Stokes needs to calm his players down and get them in the right frame of mind for the second to bat sensibly and set a big total and hope we can bowl them out with runs to spare by Sunday.

After slating England's frantic batting display, I must praise their bowling unit as a whole. Stokes will take the headlines with his sprinkling of magic, he bowled well, but with some luck & the Aussie played their part in some poor shots, much in the same way that Botham would burgle wickets at times, even by his own presence, Stokes has acquired that ability.
The opening spell from Archer & Atkinson set the tone by asking questions & giving the batsmen very little to feast on in terms of wayward deliveries. Wood applied pressure, as did Carse who reaped the benefits with 2 vital breakthroughs.
If England were overly attacking, then equally Australia became too defensive, or maybe England's bowling didn't allow them to get away. England score above 5 runs per over & Australia just above 3, both would benefit from going up & down the gears when appropriate.
Starc should've been Identified as the main threat & more focus should've been put on taking less risks against him, sitting in & taking easier runs from elsewhere.

Australia all out for 132.
England's turn to bat again leading by 40 runs at halfway.

Those of a nervous disposition to swiftly hide behind the sofa .

30 wickets falling for just over 400 runs. It's must be a terrible wicket.

^I think the pitch is alright just good bowling and some terrible batting application I expect Australia to chase this less than 5 maybe 6 down and let's be honest that would be England's ashes done already again lol.

The pitch is not the problem.
The quality of batsmanship is the issue.
The key is finding a balance.

England have been reckless in both innings. Australia were very tentative first time round and got themselves into walking wicket territory by not being proactive. Rather predictably they are doing better now.
If Australia win this match, which they should it will be a familiar cause. England batting failings.
With Cummins and Hazlewood returning to the fray in the series it won't get any easier for the tourists.

England have had their chance in Perth and let it slip. The penalty could be very severe and the road back very long.

I've got very little more to say regarding England's batting efforts. Other than to single out Crawley who sems to be undroppable.. As an opening batman or any batsman for that matter your currency is runs. opening the batting is a specialist position, we have better more productive openers in County cricket. Australia have failed to find a partner for Khawaja who is past his best, Steve Smith is in the top 5 batsmen of this current era & yet he failed at the top of the order.
With the back injury to Khawaja preventing him from opening the Aussie made the perfect call by promoting Head who has done the job before but more often in white ball cricket, after their 1st innings batting stagnated Head batting at his regular tempo suited a moderate target. As well as England' bowled in their first innings they were the opposite when it mattered most.
Very few positives to take away from this encounter, & with Cummins set to return at the Gabba things will only get tougher.

This has been a very weird start to the series just feel for the fans who brought tickets for day 3,4 and 5 they'll probably end up on the beach and bars instead