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Sydney has a history of hosting Ashes comebacks – and launching dynasties | Geoff Lemon

Classic New Years Tests offer clues for how England and Australia can end this series on their terms at the SCG and set up for the next

If you’re an England cricket team, a Test in Sydney doesn’t look so bad. The last few weeks have merited constant updating of England’s horrible streak in Australia since January 1987, which last week’s Melbourne win improved only as far as 51 played, seven won, eight drawn, 36 lost. In Sydney over that time, the calculation is a little friendlier, at 10 played, four drawn, two won, only four lost.

So while the trophy is gone, a strong showing in this match could offer optimism that it might be a springboard for the future. Sydney has a history of involvement in Ashes comebacks, whether within a match, within a series, or in the longer term.

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Australia back injured stars as squad for T20 World Cup revealed

  • Cummins, Hazlewood and David named for India and Sri Lanka event

  • Matt Kuhnemann included in spin-heavy 15-player team

Matthew Kuhnemann is in line for a World Cup debut after being included as the biggest surprise selection in Australia’s squad for the T20 World Cup.

As expected, Australia have named superstar pacemen Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, as well as swashbuckling Tim David, despite injury concerns.

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The Spin | The men’s Test cricket team of the year: from Travis Head to Jasprit Bumrah

Our selection panel’s votes have been counted to reveal the best men’s Test side from the last 12 months

Sharpen your pencils and swallow your marmalade on toast before you read on, everyone, it’s time for the Guardian’s annual men’s Test XI of the year (here’s the women’s team from last week). This year’s 13-person selection panel included Ali Martin, Vic Marks, Tim de Lisle, Adam Collins, Rob Smyth, Jonathan Liew, Tanya Aldred, Taha Hashim, Daniel Gallan, Emma John, Simon Burnton and James Wallace. Everyone taking part picked and submitted their own XI in the days after Australia’s victory in the third Ashes Test at Adelaide (statistics are from 1 January 2025 up to and including this match). When the votes were added up, Earth’s combined side to play Mars looked like this:

Travis Head: 759 runs at an average of 42. Votes (out of 13): 10
The E and the D in the end of England’s Ashes chances. The series took an early turn when Head volunteered to open the batting in the fourth innings of the first Test, and turned in the sort of innings England’s batters only spoke about playing. They had 205 runs to defend, which (easy to forget this bit) everyone reckoned ought to be enough on a tricky pitch but ended up looking pitifully inadequate. Ben Stokes flapped, and England’s fragile attack, which had bowled so well in the first innings of that same match, were smashed. The damage was so bad that some of them were still looking for their lines and lengths in Adelaide three weeks later, when Head scored the century that killed their last faint chance of winning the Ashes.

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Damien Martyn, former Australian Test cricketer, in induced coma with meningitis

  • The 54-year-old was admitted to hospital on Boxing Day

  • Martyn played total of 67 Tests between 1992 and 2006

The former Australian Test cricketer Damien Martyn has been admitted to hospital and placed in an induced coma after being diagnosed with meningitis.

The sporting community is rallying around the 54-year-old, who “is in for the fight of his life”, according to the former AFL player Brad Hardie, who revealed Martyn’s condition on 6PR on Tuesday.

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Travball emerges, athletics surges, Brisbane basks in success: Australia’s biggest sporting moments of 2025

An Ashes-defining intervention, an NRL showstopper, and new hope forced on the AFL are among our writers’ great moments in Australian sports this year

The highly anticipated Ashes was quickly torn apart by Travis Head’s cameo at the top of the order that has since turned into a much longer stay. The NRL grand final was another scene for an all-time breathtaking display, as the Broncos joined the AFL’s Lions in making Brisbane the epicentre of Australian sport. Here are our writers’ sporting highlights of 2025.

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England drop Jamie Smith from T20 World Cup squad and include Jofra Archer

  • Wicketkeeper-batter left out after difficult Ashes series

  • Injured fast bowler Archer included along with Tongue

Jamie Smith has been dropped from England’s T20 World Cup squad, but the injured Jofra Archer and uncapped fast bowler Josh Tongue have both been included.

Test performances in Australia are hardly the most obvious metric for a short-form tournament taking place in Sri Lanka and India in February, but Smith’s dramatic loss of form in the Ashes may be a factor in his omission.

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England drop Jamie Smith from T20 World Cup squad and include Jofra Archer

  • Wicketkeeper-batter left out after difficult Ashes series

  • Injured fast bowler Archer included along with Tongue

Jamie Smith has been dropped from England’s T20 World Cup squad, but the injured Jofra Archer and uncapped fast bowler Josh Tongue have both been included.

Test performances in Australia are hardly the most obvious metric for a short-form tournament taking place in Sri Lanka and India in February, but Smith’s dramatic loss of form in the Ashes may be a factor in his omission.

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The Ashes inspiration, overpreparation and bold tactics: a history of Australia v England two-day Tests | Geoff Lemon

The old rivals have clashed in eight of the 27 Tests to finish inside two days – these are the tales behind the six matches played before the current series

To put in context the surprise that greeted the two-day Boxing Day Test just gone, consider the rarity by arithmetic. The match in Melbourne was Test number 2,615, and was two-day Test number 27. You don’t need a calculator to see that’s roughly 1%. And yet we’ve had two such matches in the current Ashes series, plus another in Australia three years earlier. We’ve had half a dozen two-day Tests worldwide since 2021. What gives?

Nine two-day Tests – fully one-third of the total – happened in the 1800s, when pitches could become swamps or shooting galleries. The next few mostly involved weak teams in their early years of development. Australia and England each dished one out to South Africa in the tri-series of 1912, and the South African team was little stronger when ripped up by Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O’Reilly in 1936. Australia also bashed up a new West Indies team in 1932 and New Zealand in 1946.

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ICC rates MCG pitch ‘unsatisfactory’ after two-day Ashes Test

  • Match referee says pitch ‘too much in favour of bowlers’

  • Shortened Test could cost Cricket Australia up to $10m

The MCG pitch where England beat Australia inside two days in the fourth Ashes Test has been rated ‘unsatisfactory’ by the International Cricket Council.

Head curator Matthew Page admitted he was in a “state of shock” at how the penultimate match of the series unfolded on a surface that had 10mm grass left on, producing lavish movement for seam bowlers.

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Tom Jenkins’s best sport photographs of 2025

The Guardian sport photographer selects his favourite images he has taken this year and recalls the stories behind them

This is a selection of some of my favourite pictures taken at events I’ve covered this year, quite a few of which haven’t been published before. Several have been chosen for their news value, others purely for their aesthetic value, while some are here just because there’s a nice story behind them.

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Usman Khawaja locked in for fifth Ashes Test with ‘no indication’ of retirement plans

  • Australia coach Andrew McDonald guarantees veteran will play at SCG

  • 39-year-old’s future beyond series finale against England still in doubt

Australia coach Andrew McDonald has guaranteed Usman Khawaja will play at the SCG, but is unsure if it will be the veteran’s last Test.

After turning 39 earlier in December, Khawaja’s future will continue to be a talking point until he announces his retirement.

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Hugh Morris, former England cricketer and ECB chief, dies aged 62

  • Morris was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2022

  • Glamorgan lead tributes to ‘fine human being’

Hugh Morris, the former England and Glamorgan batter who went on to hold senior positions with country and county, has died at the age of 62.

Born in Cardiff in 1963, Morris became Glamorgan’s youngest ever captain at the age of 22 before returning to the role later in his career, leading them to the Sunday League title in 1993, their first trophy in 24 years.

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‘Everyone is still human’: Travis Head sends message of support to Ben Duckett

  • Australian backs Ashes rival over video controversy

  • ‘I reached out to Ducky to see if he was going alright’

Travis Head has revealed he sent a message of support to his Ashes rival Ben Duckett after the England batter found himself on the end of a social media backlash.

Unverified footage appearing to show an intoxicated Duckett in a tetchy late-night conversation with a fan during the team’s mid-series break in Noosa placed an unwanted spotlight on the opener.

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‘Bad for business’: Cricket Australia facing $10m loss after two-day Test at MCG

  • Packed MCG finished with three full days to spare

  • Ground curator Matthew Page at centre of the storm

England’s two-day win in the Boxing Day Test is set to deliver a huge financial hit to Australian cricket that could reach a reported $10m (£5m). That is the expected loss in revenue after the match on an excessively bowler-friendly surface at a packed MCG finished with three full days to spare.

A sell-out crowd of more than 90,000 was due for day three, including a travelling English contingent of up to 20,000, and the lack of play on Sunday will lead to an avalanche of refunds as well as lost sales in merchandise, food and drinks.

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