The Ashes Tour of Australia 2025/26

Shocking performance all round, the Ashes gone yet again.

Third Ashes test: That has to be it for Ollie Pope. Chance after chance given.

In general most of the England batsmen actually tried to apply themselves with a couple of obvious exceptions .
But it was too little too late.
It was typical of Australia to bowl remorselessly well all day and keep the batsmen under pressure by probing away at a naggingly awkward line and length. England succumbed.
The real damage was done in Perth and Brisbane where England has opportunities to cement good positions and threw them away with irresponsible batting against sub strength opposition bowling attacks in relative terms.

There's been many areas for England to exploit in their team, but due to our own inadequacies he missed those opportunities in the first 2 Tests. The absence of Cummins, Hazlewood & Lyon. Boland isn't much of a drop off in terms on skill, a Test bowling average of 18 is testament to that & England would jump at the change of a player of his quality. The inclusion of Weatherald felt like an end open, but we could've bowled better at him. Cameron Green isn't an established Test Match batsman, although he batting average isn't far off the undroppable Pope. Judging by some of the shots he's played to date he's giving the impression of a man who doesn't give 2 shits about Test Cricket having become the IPL's most expensive overseas player picking up a little over £2 million. I wonder if he has dual nationality, he would fit right in the England's Bazbollocks style.

Eng 286 all out Australia 201-4 286 ahead Ashes staying in Oz IMO, England need one hell of a miracle from here

the only bright spot for England bowling is that Archer has bowled 9 overs for just 14 runs with any real success which seems to suggest that he bowled within himself and possibly a decent line and length whereas Jacks has bowled 11 overs with 1 wicket for 69 which probably does indicate that the pitch has gone flat and while he's probably not getting anything out of it, Nathan Lyon will probably do the exact opposite.

I reckon we'll be set something in the region of 450 - 550 to win if they are still batting tomorrow

England chasing 435 to win - 48-2
It's doable as long as we get a big innings from either Crawley & Root or both

But with both Pope and Duckett going cheap to Cummins, I reckon even though Pope probably will still play there for the last two Tests win or lose, he has to be dropped from the squad for next Summer and bring in a solid no. 3 batsman (even though he may never have played Test cricket before) and maybe a few others.
We need to see some new faces in the team that can bring in a fresh look and attitude that has been sadly lacking through this team.

For me the ECB need sit down and take a long look at this and realise we are not a patch on Australia in many areas for when it comes to being a decent Test team working together. Before this series started I am sure that many wanted to see us probably give the Bazball approach a rest and focus on playing Test cricket the traditional way, and sadly that hasn't happened.
Even now if it has finally dropped on them that it wouldn't bring the desired effect, it has been too little too late. If any of them though they were the best England team to tour down under they probably were that two years ago when we were picking up some good Test wins, now it's gone slightly the other way and two stark statistics emerged from this: - 1) We have not won a Test in Australia in 17 attempts and 2) We have also lost an Ashes series in Australia in the fastest time in a hundred years on this tour - that is shocking. and probably exposes just how far we have fallen from two years ago.
To me, Bazball can no longer be totally and fully relied upon on getting us out of tight spots, we need to get the players to push that mentality firmly to one side and start digging in a little more and focusing on not on trying to blast their way out but seeing off the opposition attack better and re developing a mindset that they need to play the right shots at the time on the right balls.

Who needs to go? both Rob Key & Brendan McCullum both need to be ousted for this tour debacle, and I'd say let Stokes make his own decision on whether he steps down as captain but at present I would he probably will be forced to resign. Who would I bring in? I would bring in probably Michael Vaughan or a Duncan Fletcher type coach from Overseas (and whether that means a look at the likes of Jason Gillespie) that can bring in a bit of different approach to things. And I'd def would think Sir Geoffrey Boycott would probably do a good role as a selector.

Root gone!! 109 - 3
and it's not Starc doing the damage - it's Cummins!! a big innings from Crawley and Brook now needed and I would say not only both are really playing to save their places, if not on this tour but for next Summer at least, but even their Test careers.

Brook gone 30 b Lyon 183-4.
Bringing back Cummins & Lyon has probably proved to be a masterstroke that is helping Australia possibly retaining Ashes and seemingly another disappointing effort from Brook, needs to give up the vice captaincy. Crawley still there 79 no and even if he gets a century or 150, I still fear it may not be enough even if it goes into the last day. We have shown now we can dig in a little, but that should have always been there throughout the series and if they done it a bit more often and a bit sooner, we could have turned the series around. Root in the last test was the only one who did it, and possibly in this one Crawley is doing the same.

188-5 Stokes gone by Lyon 5!!
bloody hell - the all too familiar collapse is on! Crawley 85 not out