The Ashes Tour of Australia 2025/26

Dismal stuff.

Embarrassing collapse by England in the second innings and Australia canter to the win. First Test only went two days. Feel for those who had tickets for day 3, 4 and 5.

Zak Crawley must have dirt on the ECB to keep getting picked. A pair here.

I've got a friend who's out there for all 5 tests and yesterday he was spitting blood on his blog at the poor batting performances. Lord only knows what he'll be saying today.

(22-11-2025 11:15 )SecretAgent Wrote:  I've got a friend who's out there for all 5 tests

Poor sod . May I offer my sincerest sympathies to them.

Alastair Cook faced more balls in his Brisbane double ton in 2010 than England faced in the whole Test here.

Cricket Australia is going to lose a fortune in tickets refunded.

Just heard from my friend in Australia. Full of praise for Travis Head & full of condemnation for Englands stupid batting. Failure to learn the lesson on that pitch and adapt how England were playing was a sorry state of affairs indeed.

They need to sit down and clear the air between them - trying 'BazBall' on that pitch certainly didn't work - now they need put it to one side and realise if they want to win the Ashes from here on in, now they have to resort to the more traditional Test cricket game and build individual innings from nothing, pick the right shots at the right time and show a bit of mental toughness.

I'll be honest.
Having watched many England away Ashes campaigns down the years the reality of yet another batting debacle is hardly a surprise . The collapses have been as self inflicted as they have been depressing.
Either poor shot selection, indecision, poor technique, lack of foot movement or/and a complete non appreciation of the state of the game have all been failings of countless England batting orders down the years in away Ashes series (2010/11 aside).
These factors have consistently resulted in a litany of at least partially self inflicted dismissals where the bowler has been given cheap wicket after cheap wicket.
If it's not one reason for a batsman getting himself out it's another. Bazball era or not.
England simply do not score enough runs in Australia

2025/26
England totals: 172, 164
Average score: 168. Not good enough.

2020/21
England totals: 147, 297, 236, 192, 185, 68, 294, 270, 188, 124.
Average score: 200.1. Not good enough.

2017/18
302, 195, 227, 233, 403, 218, 491, 346, 180
Average score: 288.33. Not good enough.

2013/14
136, 179, 172, 312, 251, 353, 255, 179, 155, 166
Average score: 215.80. Not good enough.

In those series here are the list of batting collapses
54/7, 49/7, 61/7, 112/5, 61/6, 57/5, 53/6, 48/6, 62/6, 79/7, 56/6, 82/6, 142/7, 64/7, 35/6, 85/6, 89/4, 118/7, 148/7, 60/5, 74/8, 79/7, 105/6, 185/10, 68/10, 36/4, 49/4, 77/5, 85/5, 78/5, 56/9, 57/6 and 99/9.

That equates to an overall collapse of 2566/211 at 12.16 runs per wicket.

Totally unacceptable.