England win that session, but still unlikely to win the game. Though with Lyon out that opens the door just a bit. The manner of dismissal for Smith was so frustrating...
Boland and Cummins will have to do the work for Australia.
Starc has briefly reverted to being the bowler that Warnie used to give flak to.
Cameron Green is the most expensive specialist fielder in IPL history.
This is why England were so frustratingly awful in Perth - as unusually there are some real journeymen in this Oz side.
@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2025/6:
This is why England were so frustratingly awful in Perth - as unusually there are some real journeymen in this Oz side.
2nd innings 100 run lead, 9 wickets in hand….
No Cummins, no Lyon
Well that was a decent effort from England in the second innings - best I've seen Crawley bat, he looked really assured. And they got some runs from having a deep batting line-up although it always looks a bit fraught.
Surely England must take at least one of the 2 remaining tests now the series is gone and so is Lyon?
Well that's the end of that nonsense.
I can't wait for Boycotts column. Should make for good reading.
England showed more guts and determination on the whole but still not enough, as @Donsteppa said this Australian team aren't without weaknesses but their big guns stood up when needed.
It must be shit being in Oz, 3-0 down, series gone already, knowing the press will be ripping them apart and realising they have to man up to try and get a bit of respectability.
.....and maybe some "moral victories" along the way too.
Oz might relax a bit, no Lyon makes things a bit closer........
I'm picking 4-1.
Congratulations, Australia on retaining the Ashes again and in just 11 days! They are a team of ruthless winners and deserve every bit of success
England fought really hard today, probably for the first time since Day One of the series. But they are still inferior to Australia in batting, bowling and fielding and seem to be much worse in terms of team spirit and pride in their national shirt and cap.
Despite the injuries and the possibility of rain in Melbourne and Sydney, I'm still picking 5-0 to Australia.
Jeetan Patel with a quote around the "Ashes being 'the' series is everyone else's story" should also see him out the exit door even faster than Jimmy Anderson was retired to 'prepare for the next Ashes'.
Between Baz, Stokes, and now Jeetan's work with Will Jacks, we seem to have Kiwi's wrecking the Poms chances left right and centre. No shortage of idiotic quotes between them all.
Almost one for the memes thread, but a great 90 seconds ish yarn from Phil Tuffnell on ABC radio during the Test about an old school umpire, LBW's, and a looming dinner date.
@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2025/6:
Almost one for the memes thread, but a great 90 seconds ish yarn from Phil Tuffnell on ABC radio during the Test about an old school umpire, LBW's, and a looming dinner date.
Tufnell was a definite character.
Possibly the worst test batsman until Chris Martin came along and not a good fielder either. I remember he was on the boundary having missed one that went for four and some munters in the crowd gave him shit which he returned in kind with interest, he made all sorts of hand ( and mouth ) gestures that were quite eye opening for 14 year old me. Would have been at this match ( thanks Cricinfo )
Agree with the angles here that England have blown some winnable scenarios. What I also didn’t understand was why England didn’t try to drag them into deep water from the start.
There is no way Duckett and Pope can play next week. They’re toast. Crawley did enough to earn a reprieve.
Also think Brook needs a talking to at minimum and potentially dropping too. Call me crazy but this kid can be an all timer with some adjustments.
Duckett has credit in the bank, plus of course we don't have a back up opener. Planning huh? Pope I agree must have the doors of the Last Chance Saloon slapping him on the arse on the way out. The Brook thing is probably a bit more nuanced. It is difficult to discipline someone for playing in an overtly attacking manner when that has been the oft spouted preferred way. Some of the quotes from the England team over the last year or two have been cringeworthy and then to castigate a batsman for playing in the way suggested is a bit unfair just because it didn't come off.
I really like the attacking intent England have been playing with over the last few years, it certainly beats the negative methodology of previous regimes. However the going down all guns blazing all the time does need reigning in. There must be some middle ground.
@Catogrande said in Ashes 2025/6:
Duckett has credit in the bank, plus of course we don't have a back up opener. Planning huh? Pope I agree must have the doors of the Last Chance Saloon slapping him on the arse on the way out. The Brook thing is probably a bit more nuanced. It is difficult to discipline someone for playing in an overtly attacking manner when that has been the oft spouted preferred way. Some of the quotes from the England team over the last year or two have been cringeworthy and then to castigate a batsman for playing in the way suggested is a bit unfair just because it didn't come off.
I really like the attacking intent England have been playing with over the last few years, it certainly beats the negative methodology of previous regimes. However the going down all guns blazing all the time does need reigning in. There must be some middle ground.
We all know the prep has been suicidal.
3 test’s in a month before xmas.
England should have has 3-4 players play in oz cricket every year leading up to this. And if Oz dont organise enough practice mstches, then they should have brought the Lions out and played their own warm up matches themselves.
No point playing yourself into form for the boxing day test when you have lost the series
It looks like Bazball v.1 has run its course. It has been fantastic for England and if rain stayed away in Manchester for an hour they would have gone to Australia to defend the ashes.
I think England underestimated OZ hate for bazball and the need to humiliate England. Especially after the flashpoints of the last series such as the Carey incident.
Can't argue with any of that.
It must be tough being an England fan. This was all completely avoidable. I don't even think we are really that good.
Yep our bowling has been accurate but half the wickets have been gifted to us. And they have bowled too short all tour and not played a genuine spinner. And dropping catches! A couple that were just regulation.
There's enough talent there, they just had to not play like complete morons and the series would still be alive.
Three terrible decisions destroyed England's chances in these Ashes.
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The ECB pulling their players from long-form cricket in mid July and having them play The Hundred, T20 and some 50 overs since then. Guys like Ben Duckett and Harry Brook have forgotten how to bat mid length to long innings.
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Playing no meaningful warm up games in Australia. Who knew playing conditions in Australia were different?
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Sticking with Bazball come what may. It makes sense to play aggressive cricket when you are the better side, but not when your back is against the wall and ruthless winners are coming at you. Some of England's shot selection in these three Tests has been appalling.
Add dropping some absolute stinkers in the field and you have an Ashes drubbing
I think this brings home that it's not about "strong" and weak players visiting Australia. It's more about smart and dumb approaches.
And in all the quotes I've read out of McCullum, Stokes, Patel, Crawley, and co over the series to date, there's not many brains for England on or off the field.
The full tweet:
It’s an absolute disaster when you look at it.
If you told England after 3 tests…
Hazlewood wouldn’t play the series
Smith would miss the 3rd test
Lyon would miss 1.5 tests.
Cummins misses the first 2 tests.
Root would score his first 100 in Australia.
A debutant for Aus is opening the batting who is averaging 26.
Cam Green averaging 19 with the bat.
You’d be 1 wicket down with a lead of 100 in the 1st test.
And the score is 3-0, they’d be celebrating a regaining of the Ashes.
When I think about England's preparation, the lack of work (proudly at times) and the lack of adaptation to conditions, it reminds me of a story about Matt Hayden preparing to go to India.
He hadn't had success in India, so he requested the groundsman in Brisbane prepare him a dusty pitch to mirror Indian conditions. He went out on the hottest days and had spinners bowling at him in a real match simulation and he'd bat all day with a break for lunch and a break for tea. Averaged over 100 for the series.
I don't know how you can be Brendan McCullum and look at that and think 'nah'. Because really that's exactly what his players should be doing if they actually want to take this seriously. But that's the truth of Bazball - freeing the arms and playing fast is more fun and it's less work. Who cares if you win or lose?
The chat coming out of the England camp has been fucking stupid when you compare it to what has been produced on the field.
They're 0-3 down in the series, and they've barely won a session. Lots of tough talk, some weird revisionism as well. Regardless of what happens in Melbourne and Sydney this has been really bad.
Every time England looked to be getting themselves in to a position to apply real pressure to Australia invariably someone would play a stupid shot and get themselves out. I've hit 3 fours in an over? lets try and moon a 4th over cow. The defense of Brooke's reverse sweep has been hilarious, and has early selfish McCullum written all over it "oh that's how he plays". Getting clean bowled trying to reverse sweep a spinner doing absolutely nothing until that point? Hilarious.
The bowling plans were either so flawed they were laughable, or the bowlers didn't stick to the plan. Either way serving up short shit to get carted in every innings was pretty average.
They are just seemingly unwilling to do the tedious boring shit that makes up a lot of successful test cricket. Bat time. Hit the top of off over after aver. A completely ADHD cricket team.
When McCullum is inevitably fired by England I really really hope NZC doesn’t even think of giving him a call.
He was great for nzc, he was one of the big reasons why the WC was special in 2015 but he’ would be completely wrong as a coach for us.
My concern is that McCullum and co will end up back here causing yet more franchise cricket fun and games, while chasing the next big thing.
Would be nice to be wrong and it's "just" coaching 
Joe Root seems to be escaping criticism, but from someone who has been described as the best England bat of all time, has he been good enough? Good hundred at the Gabba, but his other scores have been 0, 8, 15, 19 and 39. All of which were high pressure digs when his team needed a score.
If England was to win these Ashes he needed to stamp his GOAT credentials all over the series, and while he's got the monkey off the back with the century he's been a non-factor outside of that. With inexperienced players around him (in Aus conditions), they really needed him to hang around and eke out a few more scores.
Booze, Beach, Beaten - how England lost the Ashes:
@barbarian said in Ashes 2025/6:
Joe Root seems to be escaping criticism, but from someone who has been described as the best England bat of all time, has he been good enough? Good hundred at the Gabba, but his other scores have been 0, 8, 15, 19 and 39. All of which were high pressure digs when his team needed a score.
If England was to win these Ashes he needed to stamp his GOAT credentials all over the series, and while he's got the monkey off the back with the century he's been a non-factor outside of that. With inexperienced players around him (in Aus conditions), they really needed him to hang around and eke out a few more scores.
Joe Root is in the discussion for best ever, not out and out. Hammond, Hobbs and Hutton are all worthy of the title and that’s just guys whose name starts with H.
So disrespectful for the England cricket team to treat an Ashes tour like a stag holiday. What a dismal bunch of flops!
This video might partly explain Ben Duckett's terrible form (warning language not safe for work):
What a silly fluffybunny!
Ben Duckett has been working hard on his shot selection on this tour of Australia.
Vodka, rum, tequila - he's ordered them all.
@DaGrubster Like this.
@sparky said in Ashes 2025/6:
This video might partly explain Ben Duckett's terrible form (warning language not safe for work):
What a silly fluffybunny!
Hahaha, Uber to the nets !
@sparky said in Ashes 2025/6:
Ben Duckett has been working hard on his shot selection on this tour of Australia.
Vodka, rum, tequila - he's ordered them all.
They do not appear to be that serious about this Ashes tour, it's just a big holiday down under
The thing about Noosa is it seemed almost performative. Take their drinking for example - they seemed to spend all their time at Rococo bar, which is the one that everyone walks past to get to the better spots. You couldn't pick a more exposed spot if you tried. At least golf courses are private, leafy sort of places.
Go to the bar at the resort, or one a bit further down Hastings Street with less foot traffic.
I find this all really strange - as far as I can tell there's no misconduct here. It all just feels like pearl clutching (would anyone care if they were winning?)
I wish we had more in depth analysis of the actual individual performances (although in fairness, I'm not closely following this specific tour, so maybe there is elsewhere and it just doesn't generate clicks so I don't see it... Which is probably also part of the problem, but I'm inferring the quality of coverage from the cricket I follow more closely).
It seems wrong that the highest quality analysis now are the commentators doing it live. Obviously they're good thinkers and I expect them to provide good analysis as the game goes on (another bugbear of mine with some comms), but after the match when you've had time to go through everything, I'd expect it to be even more in depth rather than just 'player X averaged 34.43 a middling tour' followed by a description of the most notable innings, which is often about the most in depth you see these days.
all this shit does is reinforce that the only thing that matters is winning.
If the poms had held a couple of catches and played one or two more discreet shots, they would be lauded for escaping the pressure cooker of an Australian summer.
On the other hand, in October the narrative around the Australian coaches and selectors was one of conservatism so extreme it was actively holding back the team. The top order was in complete disarray, and there was no depth to Australian cricket. Now Andrew MacDonald and co are winners because they are so good at backing the playing group.
Win, and everything else fades away. lose and everything you do is wrong.