This summer’s Ashes series may still be some months away, but it’s hard not to feel like we’re on the cusp of a monumental clash.
Doubly so if your footy team is already out of finals contention and you’re desperately scratching around for some sporting positivity on the horizon.
Between signs of vulnerability in the Australian team and England’s consistent ability to unite the rest of the cricketing world against them, there is a mountain of intrigue ahead of the resumption of the sport’s oldest rivalry.
MORE: Ponting names his top three for The Ashes
Here’s five reasons why the 2025-26 Ashes series could be tastier, and testier, than ever.
Ben, Brook and Bazball
If England’s series against India is anything to go by, expect eight weeks of hard cricket, short tempers and debates over the spirit of the game.
Captain Ben Stokes got the cricket world talking when he and his team reacted petulantly to India’s refusal to accept a draw late on day five of the fourth Test, with Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar instead batting on to complete their well-earned hundreds.
Stokes was within his rights to make the offer, India were within theirs to knock it back. Play on.
Batsman Harry Brook was brought onto bowl, gifting the Indian pair wide half volleys and full tosses in an effort to speed things up, with Stokes overheard on the effects microphone asking: “You want to get a Test hundred against Harry Brook?
“If you wanted to score a century, you should have batted like you wanted to get it.”
Brook, and teammates Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, chimed in with more frustrated remarks.
The whole episode prompted widespread criticism of England, and their uncanny ability to find themselves on the moral high ground.
Brook, meanwhile, having emerged as a world-class bat over the past two years, averaging 56.5 at a strike rate of just under 87, shapes as just the kind of player to get under the skin of Australian players and fans ahead of his first away Ashes.
A key cog in England’s gameplan and with the confidence to take Australia on, expect the 26-year-old to find himself right in the thick of things come November.
Australia’s vulnerability
The hosts would dearly love to be going into the Ashes with a more settled batting lineup, particularly at the top.
Perhaps some Sheffield Shield action before the first Test will make things clearer, but as it stands, there are huge question marks on the openers, with Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas averaging 19.5 and 8.33, respectively, across six innings in the recent tour of the West Indies.
Other options include the tried, and maligned, Marcus Harris, while Nathan McSweeney was cycled through last summer against India.
Cameron Green’s Caribbean audition at number three was solid without putting a stamp on the matter with a ton, passing 40 in his final three knocks of the tour.
Having not scored a century since the last Ashes series in England, Marnus Labuschagne will need to pile on the runs domestically if he’s to force his way back into the national side, having finally run out of chances following the defeat to South Africa in the final of the World Test Championship.
With Steve Smith, Travis Head, Alex Carey, and possibly Beau Webster, shaping as a reliable middle order, the Aussies may have the depth to bail out poor starts, but over the course of a five-Test series, a safe top order is essential in wearing down the opposition and wrestling back momentum.
And there’s nothing like a couple of early wickets to get a fielding side fired up.
England’s pace battery
Dating back to the days of Bradman, Larwood and bodyline, Test cricket in Australia has been characterised by the battle between the pacemen, making the most of the fast, bouncy wickets, and the batsmen, often doing all they can just to avoid the 156 grams of cork, yarn and leather flying their way.
While the likes of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins are generally the ones dishing out the punishment, the tourists look set to bring a fast bowling crew capable of matching it with the opposition, at least on the speed front.
Australian fans have become familiar with the tireless work and express pace of Mark Wood over the past two Ashes series and, while he’s currently sidelined following knee surgery, is on the comeback trail.
Additionally, for just about the first time since his debut in 2019, the same series in which he and Steve Smith shared an unforgettable tête-à-tête at Lord’s, Jofra Archer is fit and bowling fast, taking nine wickets in his two Tests against India.
Brydon Carse is yet to play Ashes cricket but it will only take one sharp spell down under for England to be accused of poaching another player from a rival country (he hasn’t quite shaken that South African accent).
And then there’s Ben Stokes, the old warhorse, who at 34 appears to have overcome the injury problems which had curtailed his bowling effectiveness.
The skipper has taken 17 wickets at 25.2 to lead all comers in the series against India.
With an Australian top order far from settled and in-form up against a fiery and fast England pace attack, things could get heated.
The Last Dance
This series could represent a changing of the guard for Australia and ensures the stakes will be as high as ever.
At 38, Khawaja is almost certainly playing in his last Ashes series, while Steve Smith (36), Nathan Lyon (37), Mitchell Starc (35), Josh Hazlewood (34), Alex Carey (33) and Scott Boland (36) are unlikely to face England on home soil again.
While England’s touring party is expected to be younger than Australia’s, the likes of Ben Stokes (34), Chris Woakes (36) and Mark Wood (35) could all bid farewell to Test cricket in the coming years.
And then there’s Joe Root…
The final piece of the puzzle
The former England captain will go down as one of their greatest-ever Test players.
In fact, by the time it’s all said and done, he may have even knocked Sachin Tendulkar off top spot on the all-time Test runs.
With 150 in the fourth Test against India, Root moved into second place, passing Ricky Ponting, having scored 13,409 runs at 51.17.
Barring two Tests in Bangladesh, Australia is the only country in which the Yorkshireman hasn’t passed three figures, instead combining for 892 runs from 14 Tests, at an average of 35.68, comfortably his worst return on any foreign soil.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that a ton in Australia would be legacy-defining for Root, who turns 35 during the series, while if he was to finish without one, it would remain a blemish on an otherwise exemplary career.