Ashes 2025-26.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Websters spin bowling is better than his seam up

Both sides missing out by not playing a front line spinner.

[bigfluffylemon]

Well played Bethell. Shades of Stokes' defiance in 2013. Let's hope he goes on to a fine career from it. Obviously had talent, but so few of his colleagues have kicked on.

As has been the way this series, England have looked good in patches, but failed to grab the game at the crucial moments. Too many brain-dead dismissals, too many dropped catches, not enough bowling in the right areas. It's basic stuff.

There is theoretically a glimmer of hope tomorrow. If Bethell can push on and get the lead near 200, then someone channels Bob Willis or Stuart Broad on a wearing pitch. But without Stokes bowling, do we really this these bowlers will run through Australia cheaply? Unlikely, I would hazard.

[andy]

Yep definitely I was pleasantly surprised by bethells bowling

[sussexpob]

Now England have basically finished batting for this series, there remains a lot of questions moving forward about this batting line up. Joe Root is excluded, as is Brook. Bethell's 100 locked down 3 for now.... after that, there are a huge number of questions.

For Zak Crawley, this has to be the end. He's averaged 28 this series, and despite the usual odd marauding 50 creeping in here and there, the idea as sold to us by Brendan McCullum that he is a fallible player that can win games on his own is just simply not true. In 65 test matches he has scored a 100 in only two test match wins..... the first was in Pakistan in a game 8 batsman scored hundreds in the first innings and the pitch was rated all time flat. The second was against Zimbabwe. There is zero career defining knocks here. Averaging 31 is bad enough, but there is devil in the detail. He averages over 50 in games that don't produce results, and 26 in matches that do. Considering how England bat and plummeting scores in tests, to get 5 completed days now is rare, it takes a featherbed for it to happen.... Essentially Crawley isn't much better than a tailender on any wicket that produces results. He also averages mid-20s away in all games. This is over huge samples too..... he has to go. No questions.

Duckett's previous form such exclude him from this conversation, but the manner of his failure in this series and questions arising from his conduct off-field puts it back on the table. His Ashes record is quite frankly appalling, and while very early on in the 2023 he made back to back fifties in a game that Pat Cummins didn't really know how to respond to the Bazball onslaught and put 9 men back on the boundary, after that innings Australia went away and adapted the plan.... since then Duckett has 9 games with a best of 42 and an average of 18. This is not only bad, but its tremendously bad. He has carved a figure of someone out of his depth in this series, and totally clueless and technically unable to respond to the barrage.

The record on paper looks good overall, but how many dead calories are there? What value is in his contributions? He has 6 100s (no Ashes ones in 10 games)....

- 182 vs Ireland....meaningless
- 140 vs Zimbabwe....meaningless
- 107 v Pakistan..... its the same 8 centurion in the first dig pitch Crawley scored on, this is pretty close to being meaningless. Historically flat deck.
- 114 vs Pakistan ..... You can't fault this effort, the pitch was tricky and England struggled.
- 153 v India.... On a pitch that India scored 900/14 with the best part of 300 runs left not out declared in the second innings meaning well over a 1000 runs given infinite time was likely. Road.
- 149 v India..... there was 6 100s and a 99 scored before Duckett made his hundred. Absolute road.

So yeah. Two teams barely test standard, a handful of scores on roads against Pakistan's statistically worst team in history. There isn't much here to say against quality sides in anything but the friendliest conditions, he is doing well.

We move onto Jamie Smith. This is the most disappointing of all for me because he has looked so good. But like Duckett, its the manner and extent of his failures in this his biggest pressure series to date that leaves huge concerns. He has been quite frankly atrocious, and cuts a figure of someone who looks out of his depth and unable to cope with the expectation. The drop catch at Brisbane was unforgivable, the tennis shots in Sydney and a calamitous run out put the icing on the cake, nothing else really has worked for him.

He's looked very good until this point, but something doesn't add up with his play in this series. Can good players look this bad on occasion, or is this a sign that the pressure just totally got to him? It's hard to not to see at least a little of the latter in his efforts this year, and that worries me for the future. If playing in an Ashes/In Australia did this to him, then can we trust him again? He needs to bounce back sharpish, another low 20s series like this one starts to open questions about his future. I have faith he can turn it around, he has all the tools to do so.

And finally.... we need to talk about Ben. Well, sort of.

Stokes averaged 18 in this series with the bat, which let's face it - its pathetic. This is no longer an outlier either, tracing back between the last two Ashes series Stokes has only 1 x 100, and averages 27 a go. Again, detail here matters. That sole hundred was scored in a drawn game where India batted out 430/4 on the last day, and in a test match with the most 50s ever scored in a game..... translation, its another stats padding on roads. The only other good series he had was against the worst ranked side England have played a multiple match series against. Like Duckett, when you get past the panckes and the worst attacks on offer, in serious games in tough conditions the pickings are slim.

Stokes has been very good with the ball, so dropping him is not in the question. But at this stage with ever diminishing returns with the bat, would England be better to consider him in the current Jacks role at 8? You can't carry someone unable to average 30-35 in the top 6, and its been a long time since Ben has proven he can consistently hit the higher side of that mark. I personally think its time to move him down the order.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Never going to happen though (moving Stokes to 8). They'll keep him as a passenger at six rather than confront his failures. Don't forget, the media/people who text into TMS thinks he's a key batter who produces best under pressure. Reality hasn't bitten so far, so why now?

But you really need to pick a decent batter at seven.

[Arthur Crabtree]

1. ?
2 Duckett/?
3. Bethell
4. Root
5. Brook
6. Stokes
7. Smith/?
8. Atkinson
9. Archer/?
10. Tongue
11. ?

Number 11 is a spinner. Presumably they can't go back to Bashir until he plays for a county. He's only 22.

12. ?
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?
16. Carse/?

James Rew and Rehan Ahmed each had a good winter, without doing much. Cox has been around for a bit without getting a look in.

[sussexpob]

I am not really sure what to think of Brydon Carse. He has had moments in this series where he has been good, but I think behind most of Australia's moments in this series where they got on top, you have Carse bowling buffet stuff, and when the game then had clearly faded to Australia he picked up some wickets too late to really change the course of games,, but good enough to give the impression he bowled better than he is. How much of that comes down to tactics I don't know, and averaging 28 away to Australia when you are bad is.. well...pretty good.

[sussexpob]

Never going to happen though (moving Stokes to 8). They'll keep him as a passenger at six rather than confront his failures. Don't forget, the media/people who text into TMS thinks he's a key batter who produces best under pressure. Reality hasn't bitten so far, so why now? But you really need to pick a decent batter at seven.

I was amused at how uncomfortable Aggers looked while Australia wracked up 500 the other day, and Aggers dared to criticise Ben. I thought he was going to cry as he uttered the words "I think Ben has made tactical errors in the field this series", looking around his shoulder to see if the ECB hitman was about to kick the door open and blow his head off, while pleading desperately with waving hands for his co-commentators to come and join him in no mans land (no one put their head over the parapet to get it blown off, he had to fly solo). People assume I dislike Ben, but I find that the press narrative about him is palpably dishonest and at is worst is pure cult of personality. I literally cannot remember a time until the end of the Adelaide test where anything he has done in a game has been criticised.

The fact is, his batting has been declining for a long time, and has in the last few years become unacceptably poor on the whole. The fact is, since the Covid home series in 2020, which represents half of his test career in matches played, he has averaged about 31 per wicket... the average generally is 28, or to put it simply, he is quite some distance into the "below average" performance levels compared to his contemporaries. We are talking the best part of 60 odd test matches as well, so this isnt a blip or a small trend, this would be a good length career long below average performance.

This year he has bucked the trend and bowled well, but its a real oasis in the desert. If he were return back to the end of 2020 to mid 2025 returns and his batting remains as it is/continues to decline, then the simple fact is he is no longer worthy of his space in the side.

If he continues to bowl like he has in the two series, then he plays as a bowler full stop. But lets be honest, he is coming to 35 years old and its a car with a lot of miles under the clock. He has had mental health issues, countless injuries. I can imagine he must be burned out after this series. If his form does decline in 2026 then we have to think is he going to be around by the time the big three series come around next time? Is it time to move on?

The likelyhood of him getting to 2029 and the home-away India/Australia cycle is essentially as close to zero as possible. Does he get to 20 months from now? Debatable.

Tbf I have no idea why he wants to continue. I'd have exchanged the beach and the odd T20 whack around for loads of money ages ago. I certainly wouldn't begrudge him choosing to cash in while his body still allows him to. 4 overs bowling every few days for 600k.... must be tempting.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe he finds playing in Tests is rewarding and motivating. After all, he's given up playing white ball internationals.

Probably England's most reliable bowler in this series and over the last year. Must count for something. I don't suppose he'll tour in four years time. More pertinent is, will he survive to the home Ashes?

[andy]

They won't pick stokes at 8 because you can't pick him as a frontline bowler as he simply can't stay fit ...I do agree though that his batting form has gone off a cliff and that is a huge worry struggle to keep him batting 6 because he dosent deliver enough...he is a coundrum as to what to do with him.....carse is baffling he bowls *modded* but he always gets wickets and his actual test record is decent but he leaks way too many runs....when everyone is fit I'm not sure he gets in right now ..

[backfootpunch]

Another 50 and we may have a game!

Stokes on one leg and every painkiller known to man to take 5-10 and win us the game

[Arthur Crabtree]

Potts will get a 50, if Bethell can stay with him.

[sussexpob]

They won't pick stokes at 8 because you can't pick him as a frontline bowler as he simply can't stay fit ...I do agree though that his batting form has gone off a cliff and that is a huge worry struggle to keep him batting 6 because he dosent deliver enough...he is a coundrum as to what to do with him.

If he continues to average in the mid to high 20s for another couple of years (and the general trend is continuous decline, so that might be difficult long term), then I do not really see any conundrum. He either is capable of bowling front line pace and he bowls well, or he is dropped. What use to the side is a number 6 who doesn't bowl, and contributes the runs of a lower order player? You could replicate that with any failure of a middle order player.

The fact is as well, we simply don't have the batting depth to have such a luxury in the side. Both openers have had disasters this tour. The number 3 has had a good game, but this was his one and only FC hundred, its hardly like he has the position on lockdown. Joe Root is 35 and has played nearly 400 international games, he is well passed the point you normally expect a batsman peak to last and by the next Ashes he will be 37, can we keep expecting him to be brilliant? Harry Brook has been lucky and seriously needs to take stock on his game. Jamie Smith has been rubbish....

[bigfluffylemon]

Stokes is reminding me of both Botham and Flintoff, in that all had a golden period where they had claim to be the best player in the world, then a long period of decline after their peak before they finally called it a day, it was obvious to all that they were not the players they once were, and yet no-one dared drop them.

Made even harder by Stokes being captain. And while there have been clear failures, he's been a better captain than Root or Cook were, and a world better than his fellow allrounders when they were captains. Drop him and you need not only to rebalance the team, but a new captain too. But I suspect Stokes' body will force the issue within the next 18 months, even if he does stay on for now.

I'm not sure who else you'd give the captaincy to? Going back to Root is out of the question. Brook has been touted as a captain-in-waiting, but on the evidence of this tour he doesn't have two braincells to rub together. Pope has been dropped and will be out of the side for a while, you'd think. Crawley should be dropped. Having a bowler as captain is a risky proposition at the best of times, and our bowlers are both inexperienced and can't stay fit.

So that leaves Ben Duckett? Or perhaps you go the Graeme Smith route and give it to a youngster with something to prove.

[backfootpunch]

His batting just hasnt looked the same since the knee injury

He just has no fluency and doesnt seem to be able to move his feet like he used to.

He has though been our best bowler across the india and australia series