The Ashes 25/26

[Super_horns]

1 hour ago, Ted Maul said:

You can tell why there was so much resistance to it being used for so long. What happened to hot-spot? 

They didn’t want to use it apparently?

 

1 hour ago, Silebyfox_89 said:

Will be interesting to see what the changes to the setup they'll do post Ashes.

 

Can see additional coaching support and changes to the schedule to support better acclimatisation on away tours. 

 

Got a feeling Pope, Bash and possibly Jacks will be dropped from the next squad. Think Crawley needs to go too but he's the type of player Key/Mcullum like.

 

 

 

 

Maybe need a fielding coach ?

 

We will probably do well in our own conditions and settings this summer  with the players current getting criticism being lauded again .

We have only won twice in Australia since 1986/7 so maybe it’s not just going to happen unless the Aussies really are hopeless and we are well prepared with a settled confident and experienced side as in 2010/11.

Edited 8 January by Super_horns

[Corky]

Booze. Golf. Results.

 

In That Order.

[Tommy Fresh]

7 minutes ago, Corky said:

Booze. Golf. Fast Bowlers. Results.

 

In That Order.

 

[Chris_OGrady]

A lot of the Australian team performed not great. They just had 3 players who performed excellently, whereas we had nobody at that level. A combined 11 would be more balanced than the scoreline suggests. I think Baz needs to go. He seemed fairly delusional and unwilling to change in the post match interview with Nas. Reminds me a bit of England under Southgate. Time to move on 

Edited 8 January by Chris_OGrady

[CL Fox]

10 hours ago, winteriscoming said:

Not saying he’s a bad player just think he could improve those stats even more without playing the bazball way. 

Hes had one of the all time great starts to test cricket. His first class average was about 40. I'd argue it's worked for him up until this tour. 

[Manley Farrington-Brown]

On 08/01/2026 at 07:52, leicsmac said:

Agnew saying this is the most disappointing tour he's covered in 10 of them is a mite hyperbolic given the way the last three have gone.

Maybe. Although did the people in charge of the last three spend the years beforehand shrugging off all criticism with "It's all about preparing for the Ashes in Australia, judge us by what happens then"?

 

So they've kind of invited comments like Agnew's.

[oxford blue]

 

On 09/01/2026 at 08:21, Manley Farrington-Brown said:

Agnew saying this is the most disappointing tour he's covered in 10 of them is a mite hyperbolic given the way the last three have gone.

 

Regarding Agnew's comments - I wrote on 14/10/25 before separate Ashes thread

England always seem to do poorly in a first Ashes test in Australia, never having any proper warm up matches. Are lessons ever learnt?

After 1 day internationals in New Zealand, they travel to Australia. One game is planned - against England Lions - before first test match. It is totally inadequate preparation for a test match..

 

As Agnew observed, this was not the best Australian team, aside from a few few like Starc, Carey, Head. He felt England had a real chance of winning the series. The off pitch antics have been covered fully in various media, but is demonstrative of a culture within the most players in the team which perhaps results in getting out with very poor shots that were totally unnecessary. 

Just to comment on two individuals who could dominate batting for many years:

Brook - I just wish he learn from the discipline his Yorkshire compatriot (Root) applies to a situation. he is so talented, as is:

Bethell - Hopefully he can start to play more of long version of cricket. Before his test appearances this winter had the less than  amazing average of 25

[CL Fox]

1 hour ago, oxford blue said:

 

 

Regarding Agnew's comments - I wrote on 14/10/25 before separate Ashes thread

England always seem to do poorly in a first Ashes test in Australia, never having any proper warm up matches. Are lessons ever learnt?

After 1 day internationals in New Zealand, they travel to Australia. One game is planned - against England Lions - before first test match. It is totally inadequate preparation for a test match..

 

As Agnew observed, this was not the best Australian team, aside from a few few like Starc, Carey, Head. He felt England had a real chance of winning the series. The off pitch antics have been covered fully in various media, but is demonstrative of a culture within the most players in the team which perhaps results in getting out with very poor shots that were totally unnecessary. 

Just to comment on two individuals who could dominate batting for many years:

Brook - I just wish he learn from the discipline his Yorkshire compatriot (Root) applies to a situation. he is so talented, as is:

Bethell - Hopefully he can start to play more of long version of cricket. Before his test appearances this winter had the less than  amazing average of 25

He also predicted them to win 3-2. The bloke is a miserable ****.

[Super_horns]

14 hours ago, CL Fox said:

He also predicted them to win 3-2. The bloke is a miserable ****.

Apparently knew we would lose in July .

 

Trouble is the media hyped it all up as our best chance to win then we soon got found out .

 

Straight back into the white ball stuff.

In Sri Lanka and India so that probably won’t go well either .