🏏The Ashes 2025 - England tour of Australia: 5th Test - Day 5🏏 - Page 9

A two-day finish in Perth, and a barnstorming start to the series. First time a target has been successfully chased here - in the short history of the Optus Stadium - and it was largely down to the efforts of one man, Travis Head scoring 123 (83) as easy as ABC as Australia ran down the highest score in the match with ease

Usman Khawaja, for the second time in this Test, didn’t walk out to open due to a niggle. That prompted a reshuffle, Travis Head was asked to partner debutant Weatherald with Labuschagne held back at no. 3. Head didn’t go berserk from ball one; he took a few overs to get his eye in, gauging the pace and bounce of the surface. Once settled, the left-hander shifted gears and began to impose himself on the England attack. Weatherald too contributed fluently as the pair added a lively 75-run opening stand. Head was unstoppable - racing to a 36-ball fifty, punishing anything overpitched and handling the short stuff with authority. What followed was an innings of sheer domination. Head blazed to a magnificent hundred off just 69 balls, leaving England stunned and helpless. Labuschagne calmly supported the tempo and played his own game. Head seemed destined to finish the job himself, but with just 13 runs needed for victory, he finally mistimed one and departed for a scintillating 123. His dismissal barely delayed the inevitable. Steve Smith walked in, joined Labuschagne in the middle and together the pair knocked off the remaining runs with ease. Australia coasted home inside two days, a ruthless chase, a Head masterclass and a commanding statement to kick off the Ashes in style.

Shuru hote hee khatam ho gaya tha. What will the Barmy Army do for the next 3 days?🤔

Anyway, Congratulations to Australia for winning the match.

Cheers..

Congrats Aus for winning the match. Wow just 2 days mein khatam

My gosh Starc took 7 wkts in an inning that must be some kinda record

🏏The Ashes - England tour of Australia: Second Test Match at The Gabba on 04/12/2025 at 9:30AM IST - Day 1🏏

Can England rise to pink-ball challenge in Brisbane?

Australia find themselves in a familiar position: 1-0 up for the fourth home Ashes series in a row

A big day three beckons for the Ashes

From two days of Ashes insanity, to two weeks of Ashes inanity. Rarely has the dead time between Tests felt so rich in promise, yet filled with pointlessness, as in this past fortnight. From that hyperactive 19-wicket opening gambit in Perth and the shock and awe of Travis Head's romp to victory, we've since been pitched headlong into a waffle-filled void, fuelled by an Ashes hype-machine that had been in overdrive from the start of November, but has since been in desperate need of red-hot takes to slake its thirst for narrative.

In the spotlight: Mitchell Starc and Joe Root

The story hasn't changed for Mitchell Starc, but the expectations have been ramped up an extra notch. At Perth, he was the last man standing of the greatest pace trio of the modern era, and he responded supremely, with a career-best 7 for 58 and ten wickets in the match. Now, he's been asked to do so again, in a form of the game in which he is simply without equal. His 81 wickets in day-night Tests include a startling haul of 6 for 9 in his most recent outing, as West Indies were routed for 27 in Kingston in July. If he makes the pink ball talk as loudly as it can do under the Gabba floodlights, there'll be plenty more where that came from. Starc has a chance to put the Ashes beyond realistic reach, before Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have even bowled a ball in anger.

There's no ducking the issue for Joe Root any more. If his team are to turn their fortunes around in this series, then England's greatest run-scorer desperately needs to come to the party. Notwithstanding Zak Crawley's pair, Root's performance in Perth was arguably the most culpable among many failures in that first Test, in particular his skittish second-innings drive that capped England's post-lunch collapse. His scores of 0 and 8 did little to dial down the pre-series chat about his modest record in Australia, and were perhaps an indication of the very real nerves he felt coming into a legacy-defining campaign. Now, however, he needs his vast experience to steer his team's agenda. Of all the ways that England might have envisaged losing in Australia, Root going missing was not among them.

Team News

Australia

Brendan Doggett looks certain to keep his place in the team after an impressive debut, which would mean that a Cummins for Lyon swap might be the likeliest scenario if there is to be a late shock shake-up of the Australian team. There is no guarantee around Head opening in both innings either with Josh Inglis having recently made a century as opener for Australia A.

Probable XI: Travis Head, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (c), Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey (wk), Mitch Starc, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon/Pat Cummins, Brendan Doggett

England

Will Jacks looked primed to play his first Ashes Test four days before the match with a lot of attention given to his batting and bowling sessions. It's a bold move from England but a positive one and again might have to do with the surface and the uniqueness of pink ball cricket here. The rationale behind Jacks replacing the injured Wood could be justified by the belief that not a lot of spin will be bowled during this pink Test, thereby eliminating the need to play a specialist spinner, and instead opt for a hard-hitting explosive No 8 who can still bowl handy spin for 8-9 overs an innings at best.

Probable XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer

Gabba. The Fortress. A venue that played host to nearly every Ashes opener since 1986. Strangely, it was the last time England won an Ashes opener in Australia. And after losing 2 Tests (includes a Pink-ball ) in the last 4 years, the breached fortress might not quite carry the same sheen. What accentuates that belief is the fact that there is less talk about the venue/surface and increasing noise around host team-selection and strategies. Hello and warm welcome to the second Ashes Test. If the recent pitch murmurs are anything to go by, one thing looks quite guaranteed - this Test is expected to last longer than the first one. Does that raise a brow? Or bring a smile? We hope its the latter.

Stokes: We are gonna have a bat. Different conditions here. We've had extra time to build up for this game. I'm not sure (how the wicket is going to play).

England have won the toss and have opted to bat