Ashes 2025/6

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 There's been 74 Ashes series played since 1882.

Eight of that team played this century and in the past 14 series. It's really picking a team from the last 30 years plus Bradman, Lillee and Botham.

Beyond those three and, probably Warnie, I'm not sure anyone is locked in, though there's probably two or three would get in once you started doing a proper comparison with the old-timers.

Definite recency bias.

He certainly loves his all rounders and has somehow shoehorned three of them in there, all have had huge Ashes moments ( Beefys being the most memorable ) but also some pretty dud series.

Adam Gilchrist wouldn't be happy batting behind them, also how does Joe Root get in this team based on Ashes history ?

Stokes again proving the man for the big moment.

A year or two back he was barely bowling at all and 230 wickets in 115 tests is hardly frontline stuff overall but taking the situation by the scruff of the neck and snaring five is pretty inspirational ( helped by some bloody reckless batting to be fair )

I reckon Australia should declare overnight to get things moving even faster !

@MN5 Yeah - very hard to see how all those allrounders get in ahead of many of the best fast bowlers of all time.

I doubt any of Vaughan, Root or KP would make a proper alltime team. Root's lack of a century in Oz is an asterisk in the context of his overall career, but a glaring miss in the light of Ashes history.

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 Yeah - very hard to see how all those allrounders get in ahead of many of the best fast bowlers of all time.

I doubt any of Vaughan, Root or KP would make a proper alltime team. Root's lack of a century in Oz is an asterisk in the context of his overall career, but a glaring miss in the light of Ashes history.

Pietersen had what I'd consider a very, very good career but to towards the end tailed off a bit and probably falls short of ATG standard. Awesome to watch though ( one of my favourite ever ) and some memorable Ashes battles.

Vaughan would be behind Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hutton, Boycott, Gooch and other old timers.

Root probably would make an ATG team but the record against Australia is something he would want to rectify.

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..

Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?

He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.

That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..

Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?

He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.

Boycott is quite a strange guy by most accounts. Seems to have played for his own stats far more than for the good of the team.

I have a feeling he wouldn't have a place in this current England team.

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.

If you're off for more than about 8 minutes, you have to be back on the field for at least that long before you can bat in the top 6.

It's an old rule. England back in '05 used to push it hard by taking bowlers off at the end of their spells to freshen up. Pushing th eletter, if not the spirit of the rules/laws ... and gives you this type of outcome:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.

Story is khawaja injured his back due to playing golf the day before. Because he was off the field for so long it meant he had to stand down for a period before being able to bat. Which lead to the new guy facing archer in the first over. For which he only lasted a couple of balls. And it meant Smith coming in at 3 and so on
Hardly a great look

@Virgil Khawaja wouldn't have lasted much longer against Archer.

If you're in your late 30s and golf gives you injuries, time to quit international cricket.

The dismissals of Head, Green, and Carey should be replayed at the next team meeting while they get slapped across the face by Mitch Starc

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.

Story is khawaja injured his back due to playing golf the day before. Because he was off the field for so long it meant he had to stand down for a period before being able to bat. Which lead to the new guy facing archer in the first over. For which he only lasted a couple of balls. And it meant Smith coming in at 3 and so on
Hardly a great look

Seems really amateur hour and completely fucked their order ( not that I think it made a huge amount of difference in the final wash up )

Reminds me of this ( thanks cricinfo )

"For Richard Hadlee, the Bangalore Test should have been memorable for entirely different reasons. His first-innings haul of 5 for 65 carried him clear of Ian Botham at the top of the world Test wickets table, but he did not feature in the second innings, after he and a number of his team-mates were hacked down by a violent stomach bug on the rest day of the Test. As India batted themselves into a match-winning position, an SOS was sent up to the TV commentary box where the former New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, was called out of his 18-month retirement along with his fellow journalist, Ken Nicholson, to act as substitute fielders"

England are going to be batting REALLY early on day 2. Welcome to modern test cricket.

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.

Story is khawaja injured his back due to playing golf the day before. Because he was off the field for so long it meant he had to stand down for a period before being able to bat. Which lead to the new guy facing archer in the first over. For which he only lasted a couple of balls. And it meant Smith coming in at 3 and so on
Hardly a great look

Seems really amateur hour and completely fucked their order ( not that I think it made a huge amount of difference in the final wash up )

Reminds me of this ( thanks cricinfo )

"For Richard Hadlee, the Bangalore Test should have been memorable for entirely different reasons. His first-innings haul of 5 for 65 carried him clear of Ian Botham at the top of the world Test wickets table, but he did not feature in the second innings, after he and a number of his team-mates were hacked down by a violent stomach bug on the rest day of the Test. As India batted themselves into a match-winning position, an SOS was sent up to the TV commentary box where the former New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, was called out of his 18-month retirement along with his fellow journalist, Ken Nicholson, to act as substitute fielders"

England are going to be batting REALLY early on day 2. Welcome to modern test cricket.

Delhi belly is a real thing, been several cases of players on tour struck down due to eating something dodge. Other international sides have had the same thing happen to them.
From memory even Bryan Waddle has had to help field on one black caps tour to Asia because so many were doubled up on the toilet..

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.

Story is khawaja injured his back due to playing golf the day before. Because he was off the field for so long it meant he had to stand down for a period before being able to bat. Which lead to the new guy facing archer in the first over. For which he only lasted a couple of balls. And it meant Smith coming in at 3 and so on
Hardly a great look

Seems really amateur hour and completely fucked their order ( not that I think it made a huge amount of difference in the final wash up )

Reminds me of this ( thanks cricinfo )

"For Richard Hadlee, the Bangalore Test should have been memorable for entirely different reasons. His first-innings haul of 5 for 65 carried him clear of Ian Botham at the top of the world Test wickets table, but he did not feature in the second innings, after he and a number of his team-mates were hacked down by a violent stomach bug on the rest day of the Test. As India batted themselves into a match-winning position, an SOS was sent up to the TV commentary box where the former New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, was called out of his 18-month retirement along with his fellow journalist, Ken Nicholson, to act as substitute fielders"

England are going to be batting REALLY early on day 2. Welcome to modern test cricket.

Delhi belly is a real thing, been several cases of players on tour struck down due to eating something dodge. Other international sides have had the same thing happen to them.
From memory even Bryan Waddle has had to help field on one black caps tour to Asia because so many were doubled up on the toilet..

I think Hadlee only toured because he wanted to get his 400th test wicket ? he got sick every time he went there according to his book.

Hard to gauge what England will do second time round. Will they go full Bazball thinking they fucked up first time around, they'll probably have a small lead and backing their guys to do better ? or will they be much more sensible and realise there is still so long to go in the test ?

@MN5

Google throws up this article, with several individual teams at the bottom. Interestingly, in the stats guy's team Laker makes it over Warnie, Keith Miller over Botham and the other allrounders, and Mike Hussey over endless batsmen you'd think were greater than him.

Someone like Greg Chappell doesn't even feature in the voting. Maybe he never had a great Ashes series?

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5

View embedded content

Google throws up this article, with several individual teams at the bottom. Interestingly, in the stats guy's team Laker makes it over Warnie, Keith Miller over Botham and the other allrounders, and Mike Hussey over endless batsmen you'd think were greater than him.

Someone like Greg Chappell doesn't even feature in the voting. Maybe he never had a great Ashes series?

He "only" averaged a shade under 46 against England vs his career average of 53.86. I guess others did better ? He retired before I got into cricket but my old man advises me he was one of the absolute best to ever do it.

Graham Gooch is another, would be no chance despite being one of the best batsmen of his generation towards the end of his career. He wasn't that good overall vs Oz.

Laker took 19 wickets in a single test. None of us would have seen it but fuck a duck, that's absolutely remarkable.

Boycotts comments about himself made me laugh.

If it weren't for Viv Richards, Greg would've been the dominant batsman of the 70s/early-80s.

Lots of others make no mark in the voting - Trumper, Dexter, May, Grace....

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.

Story is khawaja injured his back due to playing golf the day before. Because he was off the field for so long it meant he had to stand down for a period before being able to bat. Which lead to the new guy facing archer in the first over. For which he only lasted a couple of balls. And it meant Smith coming in at 3 and so on
Hardly a great look

Seems really amateur hour and completely fucked their order ( not that I think it made a huge amount of difference in the final wash up )

Reminds me of this ( thanks cricinfo )

"For Richard Hadlee, the Bangalore Test should have been memorable for entirely different reasons. His first-innings haul of 5 for 65 carried him clear of Ian Botham at the top of the world Test wickets table, but he did not feature in the second innings, after he and a number of his team-mates were hacked down by a violent stomach bug on the rest day of the Test. As India batted themselves into a match-winning position, an SOS was sent up to the TV commentary box where the former New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, was called out of his 18-month retirement along with his fellow journalist, Ken Nicholson, to act as substitute fielders"

England are going to be batting REALLY early on day 2. Welcome to modern test cricket.

I recall on the radio commentary Wads calling out asking if they needed any more fielders :cowboy_hat_face:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..

Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?

He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.

Boycott is quite a strange guy by most accounts. Seems to have played for his own stats far more than for the good of the team.

I have a feeling he wouldn't have a place in this current England team.

Might be a bit of exaggeration in his reputation, because there are endless Boycott stories.

Definitely a bit of a maverick character, but he'd take Crawley's spot in the current team and England would be much the better for it - unless Baz decided he wasn't having any truck with anchors in his team.

I've got at least one of Boycott's tour books and it was a good read in its day.

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..

Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?

He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.

Boycott is quite a strange guy by most accounts. Seems to have played for his own stats far more than for the good of the team.

I have a feeling he wouldn't have a place in this current England team.

Might be a bit of exaggeration in his reputation, because there are endless Boycott stories.

Definitely a bit of a maverick character, but he'd take Crawley's spot in the current team and England would be much the better for it - unless Baz decided he wasn't having any truck with anchors in his team.

I've got at least one of Boycott's tour books and it was a good read in its day.

Probably been posted on here before but absolutely hilarious.

Hadlee rated Boycott the toughest guy he ever bowled to. That's enough endorsement for me, an absolute great of the game.

Australia all out for 132.

England will bat with a lead of 40. There HAS to be pressure on Crawley, fuck me, this guy has a ridiculously long leash to try and "find form"

@NTA said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil Khawaja wouldn't have lasted much longer against Archer.

If you're in your late 30s and golf gives you injuries, time to quit international cricket.

Yep. Khawaja is turning himself into a (barely) playing food bill.

How annoyed (and tired) is Mitchell Starc about now.

Like Chris Martin's quip in the late 2000's - when every day is a bowling day.

Not to defend Bazball entirely but I always figured that if you can't bat time, you basically have to score runs quickly since you're effectively there for a good time, not a long time. That might be because of poor technique, or because the bowlers have the ascendance currently (for whatever reason e.g. bowler quality, pitch, weather conditions etc.). Lord knows how often I watched average NZ teams in the 90s and 00s try to bat time to avoid losing, and just not having a defendable target so it was all for nought and predictably nought at that...

Boycott has said more recently that given today's pitches and bowling techniques etc, he would probably score faster than he used to because batting time is harder than it was.

@Godder said in Ashes 2025/6:

Not to defend Bazball entirely but I always figured that if you can't bat time, you basically have to score runs quickly since you're effectively there for a good time, not a long time. That might be because of poor technique, or because the bowlers have the ascendance currently (for whatever reason e.g. bowler quality, pitch, weather conditions etc.). Lord knows how often I watched average NZ teams in the 90s and 00s try to bat time to avoid losing, and just not having a defendable target so it was all for nought and predictably nought at that...

Boycott has said more recently that given today's pitches and bowling techniques etc, he would probably score faster than he used to because batting time is harder than it was.

Definitely depends on the situation. But crikey, we're early on day 2 and England are batting again. Surely they reign it in a bit compared to the first innings.

DIsclaimer: Would not be surprised in the slightest if they have a heave.

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:

Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..

Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?

He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.

Boycott is quite a strange guy by most accounts. Seems to have played for his own stats far more than for the good of the team.

I have a feeling he wouldn't have a place in this current England team.

Might be a bit of exaggeration in his reputation, because there are endless Boycott stories.

Definitely a bit of a maverick character, but he'd take Crawley's spot in the current team and England would be much the better for it - unless Baz decided he wasn't having any truck with anchors in his team.

I've got at least one of Boycott's tour books and it was a good read in its day.

View embedded content

Probably been posted on here before but absolutely hilarious.

Hadlee rated Boycott the toughest guy he ever bowled to. That's enough endorsement for me, an absolute great of the game.

Australia all out for 132.

England will bat with a lead of 40. There HAS to be pressure on Crawley, fuck me, this guy has a ridiculously long leash to try and "find form"

Him and McCullum are just taking the piss now

Luckily for the rest of us, the Poms keep picking Crawley.

Might as well have picked Geoffrey as it turns out. Or me...

Fun fact.

We've just witnessed a first in test cricket, anyone wanna guess what it might be ?

ie first time in test cricket history this has ever happened......

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

Fun fact.

We've just witnessed a first in test cricket, anyone wanna guess what it might be ?

First time that the opening partnership has failed to score a run in the first three innings.

@Gunner said in Ashes 2025/6:

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

Fun fact.

We've just witnessed a first in test cricket, anyone wanna guess what it might be ?

First time that the opening partnership has failed to score a run in the first three innings.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

No pressure on Weatherald or Khawaja ( if he can be bothered opening )

England bring up 50 at a fair rate of knots.

They don't let annoying things like losing early wickets bother them it has to be said.

Possible jinx alert, but outside of Starc the Aus attack does not look threatening.

They need CumDog back ASAP - and hopefully fit enough to play extended periods. I heard Hazelwood may be done for the series.

England favourites at TAB; $1.35 for the win

@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:

@Godder said in Ashes 2025/6:

Not to defend Bazball entirely but I always figured that if you can't bat time, you basically have to score runs quickly since you're effectively there for a good time, not a long time. That might be because of poor technique, or because the bowlers have the ascendance currently (for whatever reason e.g. bowler quality, pitch, weather conditions etc.). Lord knows how often I watched average NZ teams in the 90s and 00s try to bat time to avoid losing, and just not having a defendable target so it was all for nought and predictably nought at that...

Boycott has said more recently that given today's pitches and bowling techniques etc, he would probably score faster than he used to because batting time is harder than it was.

Definitely depends on the situation. But crikey, we're early on day 2 and England are batting again. Surely they reign it in a bit compared to the first innings.

DIsclaimer: Would not be surprised in the slightest if they have a heave.

You would think so, but if they don't think they will last, they may as well hit out - no difference in balls faced, but maybe a few more runs on the board instead of dot balls.

This is going to be a tasty summer. Aggressive batting and bowling - can't wait

@nzzp said in Ashes 2025/6:

This is going to be a tasty summer. Aggressive batting and bowling - can't wait

Anyone with 4th day tickets may be disappointed though.

Interesting situation.

It feels like England still need to get a lead of 250-300 at least to win. But probably won't get there.

Boland comes alive and Aus back in it

Very loose outside the off stump from Brook and Pope.

Bang-Bang-Bang

Three quick wickets by Boland have turned this game back in Australia's favour.

Can Root and Stokes respond?

Starc!!