The first test of the 2025/2026 Ashes series has already come and gone in just two days. Whilst seeing the Aussie’s put down a clinical batting display in our second innings was nothing short of sensational, it is now deeply annoying as many of us who work office jobs were hoping for some test cricket viewing as we crunch numbers to make the day less boring.
The first test was the one that worried Australian’s the most this series. With Patty Cummins and Josh Hazelwood (it’s now being reported Hazelwood may miss the entire series) both out of play for the first test many people, myself included, predicted that this was going to put us in a rocky position and our batting line-up were going to need to show their strength. A batting line-up that has been under much scrutiny since the departure of David Warner, with an aging team and new blood needing to be tried out, this first test showed signs of danger.
Day One
England Batting – First Innings
English Captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat. In what many expected to be a typical display of Bazball with hard and fast runs quickly soured after Zak Crawley, who many expected to be the lead run scorer this series, fell to Mitchell Starc for a duck in the first over of play. Starc must’ve taken this test match as a personal challenge with Cummins and Hazelwood out, as he put on his best test figures of all time this innings with an enormous 7-58. It wasn’t all wickets though, Harry Brook (52) and Ollie Pope (46) both put on respectable scores to keep the English afloat after the first innings. But many turned their attention to Joe Root, it’s been talked about to extreme length that Root is the English’s best batter, and he’s eyeing off the most runs scored of all time record. But Root is yet to score a century in Australia, with many predicting this series to be the time that changes. So when Joe Root came to the crease in the first innings many held their breath. Well, 7-balls later Mitchell Starc sent him back to the sheds with a fresh duck. England finished their first innings all out for 172 before the end of day one.
Australia Batting – First Innings
The memes online and jokes around the English batting from day one had already exploded. Many even outright claiming Mitchell Starc the newest bowling messiah. With Australia only needing to chase down 172 in the first innings we felt relaxed. Too relaxed it seems. Due to going off shortly before the innings break and not serving the mandatory full 20-minute on-field time, Khawaja was not legally allowed to open the batting for Australia. So instead, after much debate pre-game on whether Jake Weatherald or Marnus Labuschagne would open with Khawaja, it turns out they’d both be opening. In what became hard to watch very fast, the Australian batting line-up collapsed under the methodical bowling effort from Carse, Archer and Stokes. Those jokes that were going around making fun of the English after their first innings very quickly turned against the Aussies as by the end of their batting innings we fell short of the supposedly easy to attain 173 score as Australia was all out for 132 after a few brief minutes into Day Two. In day one of the Ashes, 19-wickets fell.
Day Two
England Batting – Second Innings
Day two started with Australia heading out to bat, for England to very quickly claim the last wicket needed to end our innings in just a few minutes. With England heading out to bat again at the start of day two, this was an opportunity to show the Aussie crowd that they weren’t all talk and that the English batting team were here to humiliate the bowlers and put on a run score the Aussies could never chase down. After a duck in the first innings Zak Crawley came to the crease to show Mitchell Starc that he means business. Well. 5-balls later Crawley departs with another duck after a masterful caught and bowled by Mitchell Starc.
The rest of the English batting display showed a particular carelessness to it. For the uninitiated, the English play a particular style of cricket they’ve called Bazball. Bazball is essentially just playing hard and fast, get out of your head and attack the ball. This tactic in Perth lead to a less than ideal second innings for the English side with many commentators including Justin Langer saying the English batting side played uncharacteristically reckless. Englands projected top two batters of the series Joe Root and Zak Crawley scored 8-runs between them over both innings. In the second innings Englands highest scoring batter was bowler Gus Atkinson on 37. England were again all out before the end of the day, scoring only 164. This was indeed still more than Australia scored in their first innings, however, Australia now had more than three full days to chase down 205 runs. As long as Australia was willing to be patient, this score was more than achievable. But with only a couple hours left in the day there was again debate on who should go out to open with Jake Weatherald. Khawaja was having some back issues and the question on whether Australia send a night watchmen or a seperate opener was raised and one man at the back of the room said “how hard can it be?”
Australia Batting – Second Innings
Enter Travis Head. I don’t know what this man eats or if he has some kind of super power. But Travis Head went out to open with Jake Weatherald at the end of day two and had well over three days to slowly get 205 runs to win the test. I don’t know if Travis Head booked a golf day the next day and was keen to make it but this absolute madman went out with only a few hours left in the day and scored 123 runs in 83 balls winning the match that evening. Get that finger on ice! Labuschagne also put on a solid 51* to assist.
The game concluded in just two days with Australia winning by 8-wickets. Mitchell Starc wins the player of the match and Travis Head is surely somewhere with his finger on ice and his others wrapped around a beer celebrating. Not the first test I think anyone could’ve predicted but it certainly had that action packed drama that all viewers Aussie and English wanted. See you at the Gabba!
