From Bazball to Bar-Crawl: England’s 2025-26 Ashes

The sporting spectacle that is the Ashes, cricket’s greatest rivalry, has concluded with Australia’s dominant 4-1 series win over England. Prior to the first test, there was much back-and-forth media warfare between the two countries. Now-retired England cricket legend, Stuart Broad stated that the current Aussie side was ‘probably the worst Australian team since 2010 when England last won, and it’s the best English team since 2010’, words which have come back to haunt him. It was announced that key members of Australia ‘s bowling attack, such as Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, who is also captain, would be unable to play in the first Test due to injury. Do not be fooled, this Australian ‘setback’ did not in fact play to England’s advantage.

Australia’s speedy, almost ruthless, victory was much to the disappointment of those England fans

November 21st – the first day of the first Test, the beginning of the end. Those watching from England chugged their midnight coffee in preparation for the first ball of what everyone hoped would be a well-fought and competitive series. Instead, Aussie fast-bowler Mitch Starc bulldozed the England side in the first innings, taking his career best figures of 7-58. Starc dismissed opener, Zak Crawley for a duck in both innings in the first Test; the 35-year-old appeared unstoppable. What was even more shocking, however, was the fact only 18 out of 25 days of cricket were played during the whole five-Test series, and Australia beat England within 11, to put themselves 3-0 up. Australia’s speedy, almost ruthless, victory was much to the disappointment of those England fans who travelled thousands of miles after buying tickets to the latter days of the expected five-day Test.

Dropped catches, comical tennis-like shots and inconsistent bowling plagued England

England’s match preparations, or lack thereof, were scrutinised throughout the entire Ashes series. They played a singular warm-up game before the Ashes, never introduced a specialist spinner and have been without an expert fielding coach for months. The consequence? Utter embarrassment, a leakage of runs and butterfingers. To make matters worse, England coach, Brendon McCullum’s post-match interviews added insult to injury and were definitely not music to the England fans’ ears. Rather, he claimed his England side had overprepared for the second Test by training too much, even after Australia won by 8 wickets in Brisbane.

Dropped catches, comical tennis-like shots and inconsistent bowling plagued England throughout the series, prompting ex-England cricketers like Sir Geoffrey Boycott to scathingly write ‘Hubris has taken over from common sense and that cannot be allowed to carry on. Stokes and McCullum are like men digging a hole to nowhere. If what you are doing isn’t working then stop digging’. Is this the end of the aggressive ‘Bazball’ era?

The highlight of the series was watching the much-beloved England cricket veteran, Joe Root

In addition to the condemnation of England’s preparation and tactics, the press was quick to criticise their pre-third Test beach days and night in the now infamous Australian resort area of Noosa. Photos were snapped of England players frolicking in the sand, drinking in bars and a video of an inebriated and abandoned Ben Duckett swiftly became an online meme. This series of drunken events, reminiscent of a Warwick student after POP!, led to England’s style of play being labelled ‘Boozeball’ – mocking, but applicable, wordplay on ‘Bazball’. To top it all off, Australian media outlets then used this ammo to ridicule England by publishing headlines such as ‘Confirmed/England not even trying anymore’ and ‘Surfed and Turfed’.

Even though watching England versus Australia this Ashes tournament did bring me close to applying for mitigating circumstances while completing my university assignments, there were still some instances of memorable, quality cricket. It is also significant that England won one Test in Australia, which had not happened since the 2010-11 Ashes series. Following a four-year absence from participating in the Test format due to injury, fast-bowler Jofra Archer stunned audiences with the bat, scoring a half century in Adelaide. A star was born this series, with Jacob Bethell replacing Ollie Pope at number three in the fourth and fifth Test. The 22-year-old truly proved himself in the fifth Test by scoring a sensational 154 runs in the second innings. But, for me, the highlight of the series was watching the much-beloved England cricket veteran, Joe Root achieve his 41st Test century and first ever in Australia. Alas, he did not stop there, scoring a second hundred at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the final Test, marking the end of this Ashes series with a moral victory.