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Ashes 2025-26 explained: Australia play cricket while England did ‘everything but cricket’

Umesh Sharma

Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum (L), Australia after Adelaide Test win (R) (Source: AFP)Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum (L), Australia after Adelaide Test win (R) (Source: AFP)

The ongoing Ashes 2025-26 hasn’t been less than a nightmare for England as Australia have completely outmuscled them by taking an unassailable lead of 3-0 in the five-match series. The Aussies won the first three Tests successively in a dominant style to leave the visitors clueless on the field. 

Apart from that, the off-field antics centred around the England cricket team and some post-defeat comments by the management caught the attention of the cricket fans, analysts and former cricketers as well. 

It also raised a lot of questions around England’s professionalism and attitude towards the rivalry of Ashes’ stature. If we look at the timeline of events during and before the commencement of the current edition, there’s a clear distinction between the methods adopted by England and Australia. 

England’s focus on things beyond cricket 

Initially, the England coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes came up with the big words before the start of the series. The duo spoke highly about the importance of the Ashes series from an English perspective. “It is the biggest series of all our lives,” said McCullum before the series kicked off. 

Furthermore, Stokes echoed his coach’s thought process. “We’d be lying to ourselves to say otherwise, definitely the biggest series of our lives,” said Stokes to SkySports while extending his agreement to McCullum’s remarks. 

But the above-said words or remarks didn’t reflect England's approach throughout the Ashes 2025-26 so far. The Englishmen didn’t look competent enough to fill any of the columns, be it cricket, professionalism, and accountability after the embarrassing defeats in the ‘biggest series of their lives’ as they claimed. 

The echoes of ‘Noise in Noosa’ after early fallout in series 

After losing the first two Tests of the series by a massive margin of eight wickets in both the matches, some of the England players went on a break in a resort town of Noosa in Queensland. Notably, the reports in English media learned that this party was planned by coach McCullum more than a year in advance of the ongoing Ashes 2025-25. 

Even after falling by 0-2 against Australia in the first two Tests, the plan was kept on and players went to this party instead of working on the errors that resulted in their defeats. Furthermore, the videos, news, and reports that emerged from their Noosa party happened to be another dent in their Ashes miseries on Aussie soil. 

The English players were alleged of excessive drinking, alongside a video of Ben Duckett emerging, in which he seems to be intoxicated and slurring his words during an intense interaction with the locals. It all pushed England and Wales and the Cricket Board to launch an investigation after their director Rob Key stepped in to clear the board's stance. 

“We’ll be looking into seeing what the facts are as opposed to the things that have been established or elaborated on. Headlines can be misleading at times, saying it’s a stag do and stuff like that . Stories of players drinking six days solid, that’s unacceptable,” said Rob Key to BBC Sport

However, England came up with an improved performance in the third Test but it didn’t help them as the hosts outshone them to seal an unassailable lead. It all happened for England within a span of just 11 days. 

However, they won the fourth Test to end their winless streak in Australia but it was too late to improve the things for England as they already lost the series with three straight defeats. 

The Aussie mindset: ‘No nonsense’ approach with cricketing excellence 

Australia entered Ashes 2025-26 with some serious injury woes, with the skipper Pat Cummins and veteran pacer Josh Hazlewood getting ruled out of the first two Tests. However, the available mix of players led by Mitchell Starc’s excellence in both the games, showed up on the ground. They displayed a sense of responsibility to not let the side feel any lack of two prominent players

Head’s century and Starc’s bowling heroics emerged as the major highlights from the series opener in Perth. Furthermore, the combined batting brilliance of Australian batters was once again joined by first Test’s protagonist Mitchell Starc. Eventually, Australia sealed the win in Perth and Brisbane, followed by a series-claiming win in the third Test in Adelaide. 

Australia’s Travis Head is currently the leading run-scorer in the series (391 runs in eight innings so far), alongside his teammate Mitchell Starc as leading wicket-taker with 24 wickets in seven innings. These two stats are evident enough to showcase the hosts’ seriousness towards the series without making any sensational claims before the series like England coach McCullum. 

Conclusion: England with footnotes in Aussie Euphoria 

After enduring an embarrassing debacle, it’s high time for both England players and their management to take some serious notes from Australia. Learning from the ‘Aussie discipline of cricket’ is something England need to focus by putting their ‘privileged ego’ aside after three hard-hitting straight defeats. 

On the other hand, the WTC 2023 champions, Australia will have this home series as a memory to cherish, alongside going forward at the top spot in the ongoing WTC 2025-27 cycle.