Is Bazball already steering England to the wrong side of a 5-0 Ashes whitewash?

Australia have dealt the first blow in the 2025/26 Ashes series with a thumping eight wicket win in Perth.

See where the game was won and lost, and all the talking points to come from the first test, including does Travis Head remain at the top of the order for Australia and does Bazball already have England careering to 5-0 Ashes loss?

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to another edition of the Ashes to Ashes podcast where we delve into everything related to the Australian and England cricket teams, both men's and women's, as they gear up for another Ashes campaign, and they're always gearing up for an Ashes campaign. I'm your host, NewsQuest journalist and avid cricket fan, Patrick Glover, and what a week in cricket it's been for Aussie and England fans. The Ashes is finally underway after months of talk, and the first test certainly delivered on the hype all over in two days. But uh we saw some amazing cricket from that first test over in Perth. So today's episode is going to be all about running through that first test, taking a deep dive into where it all went right for the Australians and where it all went wrong for the English. But before we get started, just a quick reminder to give us a rating and follow us wherever you listen to your podcast, whether it be on the likes of Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music. So the first Ashes test over in Perth has been run and won and was all over in two days. So feel really sorry for all the fans that had tickets for days three, four, and five. We all knew these tests probably weren't going to go the five days, but to to be all over in two for the first test was crazy. So Australia coming away, victors from that first test by eight wickets with Travis Head and Mitchell Stark, the heroes for the Aussies. So England won the toss and elected to bat first. They were all out for 172 within just over 30 overs on day one. Harry Brooke leading the way there with a swashbuckling 52. Mitchell Stark, the chief destroyer for Australia, recording best test match figures for him of seven for 58. In reply, Australia had a bit of a wobble. They were 9 for 123 overnight after day one, and then eventually all out the next morning for 132. Alex Carey top scoring there for Australia with 26, and Stokes uh taking five for twenty-three from just six overs for England there. So England took a lead of 40 runs into the second innings and were cruising at one for 65 around about lunchtime on day two. So a lead of 105 runs with nine wickets in hand before the rock kicked in. They lost four for 11 and then were eventually all out for 164, setting Australia a target of 205 into Travis Head. One of the the most amazing Ashes innings you will see. Finished 123 off of 83 deliveries, opening the batting. So Usman Kowaja was suffering from back spasms and was unable to open. So Travis Head moved up the order and took his spot. And boy, was that a the master stroke. And we'll we'll have a chat about that in a little bit more depth as to what that means for the makeup of the Australian side going into the Brisbane test. But geez, if you can have Travis Head go out and do that every game, then that would be amazing. But he was well supported by Marnus Laboshane, who finished unbeaten on 51 off of 49 deliveries. And Jake Weatherold, after a duck in the first innings, managed to make 23 off 34 in that second innings as well, supporting Travis Head at the top of the order in that second inning. So Travis Head's 100 came off of 69 balls, which was the third fastest century by an Australian in history. Adam Gilchrist holding the record there with his century against England in the 26-27 ashes off of 57 balls. So where to start? There's so many talking points to come from that game, even though there was only two days of cricket. So let's start with Mitchell Stark, the player of the match with 10 wickets. So, as I say, took seven for in the first innings and took three again in the second. Just bowled fantastically well. And there was obviously a lot of talk coming into that test match. No Cummins, no Hazelwood, but no worries really in the end. Mitchell Stark led from the front there without Cummins and Hazlewood in that side. Supported well by Scott Bowland and Brendan Doggett. Scotty Bowland probably had an innings to forget in the first innings. He he missed his length a bit, was bowling very full, and was being driven a lot, but in the second innings was back to his his normal self and bowling in those dangerous areas, just back of a length outside off stump, which was causing lots of issues for the English batsman, and he finished with four for 33 in that second innings, which included the wickets of the dangerous Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, and Harry Brooke. Brendan Doggett as well, a fantastic start to his international career. He took five wickets for the match, so two in the first innings and three in the second, and didn't look out of place at all at international level. Probably a bit unlucky to not take a few more in that first innings, bowl really well, beat the bat a couple of times and looked really threatening, but just didn't get the the rewards that he probably would have on another day. And unfortunately for him, Pat Cummins is tracking really well for the second test up in Brisbane, and he could be the unlucky one to make way for him. But we'll get into that in a little bit more detail a little bit later on. So back to to Mitch Stark, he set the tone in both, and he's dismissing Crawley in the first over twice for naught, meaning that Crawley starts his Ashes series with a pair, and and that puts a lot of pressure on him, I think. There was a lot of talk leading into this Ashes series about Crawley's spotting the team, and and that that talk is only intensifying. And if he goes about his cricket the same way in the next test, I feel like Stark's going to have his number again. You've got the pink ball to worry about. Mitchell Stark is the best pink ball bowler in the world. You just need to look at his track record over 80 wickets at an average of 17 over in all his his pink ball tests. So he's an absolute master with the pink ball and will do some damage up at the gabba. Croyd is going to need to find a way to counteract that because he's going to come up against him. And if Pat Cummins is fifth, then Camo will obviously be there as well. And Scott Bowlands, we know what he can do with not just the red ball, but the pink ball as well. So he's got a really good record in pink ball tests, too. So he's going to have his hands full in the second test. And if this dip continues, England are going to have to look outside, and they don't really have any specialist openers in the squad at the moment. So if they do want to go away from Crawley in this series, they're going to have to pull someone in from back here in the UK. Not really a great start for a player that was supposedly built for Aussie conditions, but there's still obviously four tests to go, so he's got plenty of time to turn that form around. The Aussie bowlers and their plans just expose the English batsman and Baspool, as I knew, and I think a lot of people knew it would. So you look at the stats from that first test, England only faced a total of 67.3 overs for that entire game. That's only 405 deliveries. In comparison, Jason Gillespie faced more balls in his double ton against Bangladesh with 425. So, from an England point of view, not good enough. They're not out there for long periods of time to give themselves the best opportunity to post a decent score. As I say, they were cruising. They had a lead of 105 with nine wickets still in hand early on day two, so still three and three days and two sessions to play, and then to capitulate and throw it all away. I know we're not taking anything away from obviously the Aussie bowlers. I think that they need to take a lot of the credit the way they put pressure on England and exposed their aggressive style of cricket, and also Travis said as well, played out of his skin in that second innings. But their over-the-top aggressiveness and an inability to adapt to change and different conditions really shone through in this first test. Listen to a lot of the the ex-players that are that are commentating over in Australia at the moment, whether it be Aussie greats like Justin Langer talked about it, and then you had guys like Nasser Hussein and Michael Vaughan also spoke about it from an English perspective. When you go over to Australia, the the bouncier conditions mean that it's harder to drive on the up, and the Aussie bowlers nagged away at that length, sort of just on or outside off, or back of a length, and got the the English batsman driving. And because of their aggressive baseball style of cricket, they were throwing their hands at it and either getting caught behind or in the slips called and or chopping on. You saw a lot of that. Probably very few batsmen got good deliveries. Ben Stokes maybe copped a couple of good ones from Mitch Stark, but the Yossies had done their homework, knew the the English were going to come hard and bowled that really good length. And I think not just the the English batsmen, but the English bowlers can probably take a lot from that as well. Travis Head, when he came in in that second innings, was was absolutely belligerent and was hitting the balls to all parts. But it didn't take very long for the English bowlers to change their plans and then they started banging the ball in short and and that was just wasting the new ball and played right into Travis's hands. I know that the way he played was was outstanding, and and when someone's in that that mode, it is really hard to stop. But the English bowlers almost, and and Ben Stokes said it after the game, he he was sort of a little bit shell-shocked and didn't really know what to do. They bowled really well in the first innings, bowled to their their plans, bowled aggressively, bowled quick in the first innings, but as soon as something went wrong for them in the second innings, they they altered their plans, went away from what worked, and didn't bowl enough of that sort of nagging length, just sort of back of a length outside off stump to sort of challenge the the Aussie batsman and to make them hit on the up. Towards the end of that second innings, though all the bowlers were pretty much just banging everything in short. And by that point, Travis and Marnus both had their eyes in and were just picking off boundaries and and singles easily and and just ticking the scoreboard over with no worries at all. So it's all well and good to have this aggressive, fast bowling lineup. And and as I said, in the first innings they look really dangerous with Archer, Wood, Cass, and Atkinson all bowling really well. But as I say, the the slightest sign that things were going against him in the second innings, and and they crumbled. And the other thing about that, there's obviously been concerns, and and I've flagged this a couple of times with Archer and Wood's fitness. Wood hasn't played a test match for over a year, and Archer has played very little test cricket since 2019. And it's one thing to to bowl in white ball games and to bowl in the Nets, but test cricket is a different beast, and and you saw that the pace drop off for both of them significantly from day one to day two. It's that's only one day, and the it that test match only went for two days. You think about if a test match goes for five days, if they're bowling at the start of the test and then they have to back up again and and again, it it's not sustainable through a through an Ashes series, and and especially in in Aussie conditions, as I say, you you watch the pace from Archer and Wood, and it dropped off significantly from day one to day two. Archer's sort of pushing high 140s and Mark Wood pushing around 150 on day one, and then by day two, Archer had dropped and was bowling sort of high 130s, and and Wood had dropped right down to around about low 140s. So that's gonna need to be something they look at, and and that just causes a problem for England because they need to manage those guys, so they're gonna need to chop and change their bowling lineup rather than having some consistency and having a set team all the way through such an important series. And while the English bowled well on day one, I think the Aussies probably had a slight wobble as well with the bat. You look at maybe a couple of the early dismissals were from good deliveries, but towards the back end, I think a lot of the Aussie batsmen sort of threw their wickets away. Travis Head sort of played a it was just a sort of a a dab to short mid-wicket and and got caught. Kez tried to ramp Stokes down to third man and got caught. Cameron Green sort of wafted at one outside off stump and nicked off. They almost gifted Ben Stokes a five for in that first innings, and and as I say, those three that I mentioned, so Greenhead and Carey, probably looked the most set out of all the Aussie batsmen, got starts, got going, all got into sort of the 20s, and then as I say, just threw their wicket away. So I feel like had one or two of them sort of gone on with it, then it it it might have been a slightly different story, and uh Australia might have won by even more, put a few more runs on the board and put a bit more pressure on the English batsmen going into that second innings, but hey-ho, still still turned out alright for the Australians. But one one Aussie batter that is under a little bit of pressure coming out of that first test is is Uzman Kowaja. So he suffered back spasms throughout that first test. He didn't open the batting at all. The first innings he couldn't open the batting because he'd been off the ground for too long with those with those back complaints. And then in the second innings, he his back just wasn't up for going out to bat. He batted once in that game and made two before getting caught behind. He dropped a catch, and there's also talk about his lead up. He he played a couple of shield games early in the season and then missed the last round before the first test, so he could go off and play golf. I I don't know. For me, that's not a great lead up, and it it's a tough one because Uzzy's been such a great player for Australia for such a long time. He he sort of came back into the team four years ago and and since then has has been a really solid part of that that Aussie lineup at the top of the order. He's worked really well with with Davy Warner and those two are really good combination. But of late his form has has seriously dipped. He's getting on a bit now, and and these backspasms and the way he sort of played and and prepared for this test just doesn't it doesn't shout to me as as someone that it's harsh to say doesn't want to be there because I think he still wants to be there, but and look, everyone is obviously in this day and age have their own ways of preparing for games and it's it's not necessarily go and and play every single Sheffield Shield game or hit five million balls in the nets. It it is easing into a test. Look, just look at England, for example, but we'll get to that in a minute. Um it it it is sort of maybe spending a bit more time away from cricket in the lead up to a big series, but he just looked underdone, and he made some runs with Queensland in the shield games that he did play, so he looked like he was in some good form, but he just looked out of Nikki in that first test. And and now with Travis Head going up to the top of the order and and playing the innings he did, does that become a permanent move? I think that Travis Head exposed a major mismatch against England there, and and there's now a lot of talk that move could be a permanent one and uh and Trav could stay up the order. It obviously takes away it the the destructive nature of head in the middle of the order, but I feel like there's a good answer for that. So for me, I think Uzi needs to be dropped. I think that's it's harsh, but I think that could be his test career over. If he does get dropped, I I don't see him coming back in. I think you've got guys like Maddie Renshaw for Queensland, he's bashing down the door. He's now scored two centuries for Queensland in the last two shield games, and then that follows a shield century in in round one as well, before he he got picked for the the Australian one-day side. So Jake Weatherold's obviously I think showed enough in that first test to keep his spot. So if Uzzy does get dropped and they do opt to go with Travis Head at the top, you've obviously got Bo Webster that could come back in. You could bat Green up at five and slot Webster back in at six. For me, I think if the Aussies are looking for a like for like for Travis Head at sort of five and six, I think Josh Inglis is probably the answer. He sent a timely reminder to selectors with a 125 from 107 deliveries against the English Lions in a friendly game during the week. So he's obviously in some good form. He's he's coming off the back of a calf injury, which saw him miss a little bit of cricket for Australia in in the White Ball series against New Zealand and India, but obviously well and truly recovered from that now. And as I say, peeling off 100 in that England Lions game, he looks like he's he's ready to go if he is called upon. So in that case, I reckon you you move Cameron Green up to five. There's obviously the long-term goal of Green batting at four in that test team once Steve Smith does retire. So I think Green coming up to five and then English slotting in there at six. Again, it's it's harsh on Bo Webster because he hasn't done anything wrong and still has someone like English come and leapfrog him. But the other option would be to bring Webster in if they wanted an extra bowling option, which at the moment they don't need because they haven't been out there for for long periods of time for the the bowlers to get tired and need that extra option. So yeah, I think for me in the next test, I think Trav goes up to open to put pressure on the English bowlers early again. Uh English comes in at six uh and so they don't lose that aggressiveness in the in the middle of the order. And and obviously you've still got guys like Cameron Green and Alex Carey who go quite hard as well. So it's not like they're gonna completely lose their get out of jail cards in the middle if there is a bit of a top order collapse. I know there's been a a few sort of Aussie commentators that that worry if they take Travis Head out of five and and he gets out early at the the top of the order, that you lose him at five. But I think they've still got enough butting there like with with Marness and Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, you've got enough butting there. And Alex Carey, sorry, at seven. There's enough butting there to to get Australia out of a tricky situation if needed. The other changes that could be possible to the starting 11 for Brisbane for Australia. Pat Cummins, as I mentioned before, is just about there. He's been training the house down in the nets over in Perth, and and we've seen him training with a pink ball this week as well, which which could maybe be a a nod to the fact that he's ready to go for game two, which kicks off on December 4th at the Gabba. And Josh Hazelwood's the other one, he obviously was ruled out of the first test due to a hamstring injury, and there were reports that he was going to miss the entire series, but Andrew McDonald has since come out and rubbished those reports and saying that he is still a chance of playing some part in the Ashes series. He's probably still a couple of games away yet. I don't think he'll be ready for Brisbane, but I dare say we will see him. He's back bowling, albeit off of a shorter run-up, but he is back rolling the arm over. So I feel like he will play some part in this Ashes series, but maybe not in the next test. There's also talk that Australia may consider playing four quicks in Brisbane for the day-night test. So that means dropping Nathan Lyon for the second time in three matches. He was he was obviously dropped for the final test over in the West Indies again as Australia opted to go with four quicks on on sort of more fast bowler-friendly wickets. And and the GABA's going to be the same, it's going to be very fast, bowler-friendly. The pink ball does a bit more for the quicks under lights. So if Cummins is fit, do you play four quicks and have Cameron Green as sort of a fifth option? And then if you need spinners, you've got the likes of Travis Head, Steve Smith, and Minus Labershane who can come in and do an option, or they could potentially play Bo Webster, who, along with his medium paces, can also bowl a bit of spin. Nathan Lyon, we know what he can do, and he he's got a fantastic record with the pink ball, even, but he only bowled two overs in Perth. He didn't bowl much in the pink ball test last summer, so there is potentially the opportunity to bowl four quicks there. And the other thing is if England are going to play the same way they did in the first test and not bat any longer than 70 overs, then the the fast bowlers don't have time to get tired. Like Mitchell Stark, he only bowled no more than probably 30 overs in that first test, and he's had a 12-day turnaround for the next test, as all the Aussie bowlers have, sorry, you should say. But they've had plenty of rest, so they're gonna be they're gonna be cherry right for this next test. So you can afford to to maybe play another quick because they're they are well rested and and ready to go. As for England, the noise around that side is becoming almost deafening. There's been a lot of talk about this baseball style over the last couple of years, and it's divided people in the lead up to this Ashes series. There's a lot of people that thought, oh, this is the Stuart Broad labelled it, the best team to head to Australia in ten years. And a lot of people I think were excited about the prospect of how the aggressive batting style of this lineup would play over in Australian conditions. But I think what you've got to remember is Australian pitches aren't what they used to be, they're not flat batting-friendly tracks. They actually offer a bit for the bowlers now, and you have to respect that Australia have one of the best bowling attacks in the world, even without the likes of Hazelwood and and Cummins in there. They know how to play their conditions, they've got plans. You've got to respect that. You can't just go out all guns blazing and trying to hit balls to all parts of the ground from ball one. You need to respect the conditions and the bowling unit that you're playing against. And England haven't done that in the first Test, and and that leaves the other half of England supporters and pundits that were worried about how baseball would hold up in in Australian conditions, and and it showed you a lot of those that whole England batting lineup are gonna need to sit down and have a look at the way that they go about their cricket over in Australia because it's it's gonna end up a 5-0 whitewash if they play the way they did all series, which is quite possible because Ben Stokes did come out after the first test and pretty much said that oh well obviously off the back of Travis Head's knock, the the people that made runs and were successful were aggressive, but yeah, that's all well and good. But Travis Head built into his innings, he knocked the England bowlers off their lengths and forced them to bowl in other areas, which he then cashed in on. The Australians didn't do that, they stuck to their plans, stuck to their guns, bowling that good line of length, and then throwing in the occasional short ball when it was needed, but they were relentless in the way that they bowled, and and that was what bought England unstuck. Not the fact that Harry Brooke in the first innings was trying to dance down the wicket to Mitchell Stark and blaze him over cover every ball. If you bat like that, one ball is gonna have your name on it, and it you could make 50 before that ball comes, or in the second innings, as as it showed, Harry Brooke was knocked over for a duck. So I think England have a lot of a lot of work to do ahead of this second test. And you would have perhaps thought that that would involve maybe a warm-up game, getting used to the pink ball in in different conditions, but nope. Ben Stokes, Brendan McCullum, and the stubbornness and arrogance of Bas Ball has them refusing to play a warm-up match, even though they've had extra time with the the first test ending in two days, they've got extra time to to play a bit of a warm-up game and get used to the the pink ball. But there's a Prime Minister's 11 game against the English Lions, where England could put some players into Lions side to give them a bit of a runaround. But again, the the arrogance and and stubbornness of Brendan McCullough and Ben Stokes in this baseball era, they're just going about it the way that they always have and say that that's gonna work. And and you look at people like Jeffrey Boycott have labelled them stupid and brainless and said that they never learn because they never listen to anyone outside their own bubble. Michael Vaughan said that we want baseball with brains, but the brains haven't arrived yet. When you've got guys with that much experience that have been there and done it, Michael Vaughan's won an Ashes series. They know how to win against this opposition. Why would you not take on board what they have to say? Jonathan Agnew was another one who came out and questioned Ben Stokes about whether plans would change about having a warm-up game after the embarrassing first test loss. And and Stokes said, We've operated in this way where we know that the preparation that we put in is correct in the way which works for us. We prepare incredibly well, we work incredibly hard, every single day do we get the opportunity to work on our game. We believe and we trust in our process. If the results don't go in our favour, that's not going to differ. Because hand on heart, we know we put every ounce of ourselves into our training, and we know and believe this is the best way for this team to operate. And when Jonathan A. New pressed again, Stokes answered, I've just answered that question. So it just goes again and shows how stubborn this side is. At what point does the outside noise get so loud that it becomes too hard to ignore for for McCullum, Stokes, and and even guys like Rob Keys and the rest of the England set up? McCullum's also said that England won't change its tactics despite its demoralising defeat in the first test. So this series has 5 Neil Ashes whitewashed to Australia written all over it, and it it might take something like that for England to realise that this baseball style of cricket and this mentality that they're going about it with isn't the right way to do things. You need to have a proper preparation, especially if you've been smashed in that first test, you've got a golden opportunity to play a pink ball game under lights against a Prime Minister's 11, which is a fairly decent team. Use it, use that preparation time. I get that not everyone has to play. Guys like Wooden Archer might need some time away so that they can rest up and be ready for the second test. But but someone like a Zach Crawley, who's gonna need to face Mitchell Stark and potentially Pat Cummins with a pink ball under lights at the Gabba in bowler-friendly conditions, who's coming off a pair, there's question marks around his spot in the team and have been for some time. Why would you not throw someone like him into that Lions batting lineup to give him a bit of prep? It just doesn't make sense. But anyway, so my predictions for the 11s for Australia and England for this second test. So Australia, I reckon it's gonna be Head and Weatherold at the top. You're gonna have Laboshane, Smith, Green, English comes in at six for me, I think. Kerry, Cummins if he's fit, Stark, Lyon, and Boland with Dogger as 12th. I'd toy with the idea of perhaps maybe playing Dogger instead of Lion and playing a four quick attack, but I just know what you get from Nathan Lyon, and if they need something a bit different, then I think he adds that. And he's gonna be effective against the the England batters. England wouldn't be surprised if they they went into the game unchanged. However, I reckon they might make one change. Don't be surprised if they pick Will Jacks in this second game to add a bit of batting depth to that side and also to add a spin bowling option as well. I know that Root can obviously play that role as well, but I think Will Jacks will give them a little bit of batting depth. So for me, I think it'll be Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brooke, Stokes, Smith, Jax, Atkinson, Archer, and then either Wood or Cast, depending on whether Wood needs a bit of time to recover before he plays again. Australia continued their dominance over England in the England Lions and Cricket Australia 11 game with the CA 11 winning that match by eight wickets, highlighted by a timely 125 not out from 107 deliveries by Josh Inglis, who opened the batting after a 40 in the first innings. Mackenzie Harvey from South Australia was also impressive at the top of the order with 52 and 58. Well, Teague Wiley from WA scored 71 and 29 out in his two knocks as well for the CA 11. With the ball, it was great to see Jai Richardson back in action as well. He's coming back from a shoulder injury. Despite going wickerless in the match, he managed to get through 20 overs, which is great signs for the Aussies. Well, for the Lions, Emilio Gay and Ben Kellaway were the only two batsmen to pass 50 in the match with 78 and 59, respectively. Well, with the ball, Matt Potts was probably the pick of the bowlers taking three wickets in the first innings. He wasn't Wasn't the only England Ashes squad member to be in action during that match. Will Jax and Jacob Bethel also featured. Jax took one for 41 in the first innings from 16 overs, while Bethel took none for 38 from 10. And with the bat, Jax scored 30 and Bethel 44 in the second innings after not batting in the first. So wouldn't exactly say that Test Squad members are bashing the door down to get into that side. But the guys in the senior 11 aren't having much luck it over in Australia either. So interesting times ahead for this England touring squad. So that brings us to the end of another edition of the Ashes to Ashes podcast. Once again, thank you very much for tuning in and be sure to give us a follow and a rating wherever you listen to your podcast, whether it be on the likes of Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else. I will be back at the same time next week with plenty more Ashes news. So I'll see you then.