Category: Cricket

Lilac Hill warmup, Alex Carey’s glovework and Pat Cummins’ control of Joe Root are key parts of the story

It’s not a complete exaggeration to say that Australia won the 2025-26 Ashes on 15 October 2024. That was when Cricket Australia announced the schedule for the series: Perth first, Brisbane second. Starting the series on the bounciest, most Kryptonicious pitches in Australia – and the only major venues where England haven’t won a Test since 1986-87 – was a masterstroke, especially as Australia also had a day-night advantage at the Gabba. By the time England reached more batting-friendly climes, many of their batters already had scrambled brains.

• Australian captain: ‘I doubt I’ll be playing in Melbourne’

• Spinner set to miss final two Tests with hamstring injury

Australia captain Pat Cummins could join spinner Nathan Lyon on the sidelines for the rest of the Ashes.

Lyon is expected to be ruled out for the last two Tests against England after suffering a hamstring injury in Adelaide on Sunday. And Cummins is unlikely to feature in the fourth Test in Melbourne from Boxing Day, while he is also doubtful for the Sydney finale from 3 January.

• Australia captain lives close by and takes his kids to beach ‘all the time’

• Players to wear black armbands and join moment’s silence in Adelaide

Australia captain Pat Cummins has said the tragic events at Bondi beach ‘hit home pretty hard’ as they unfolded on Sunday night just down the road from his home in the neighbouring Sydney suburb of Bronte.

As the cricket world prepares to pay tribute to the victims of the Bondi beach terror attack when the third Ashes Test gets under way in Adelaide on Wednesday, Cummins and England captain, Ben Stokes, revealed the profound impact the massacre had on them and their teammates.

• Former fast bowler says attack has gone past his group from early 2000s

• ‘The Australian public won’t recognise how good they are until they’re gone’

Brett Lee has labelled Australia’s current bowling attack as the country’s greatest ever, declaring that Pat Cummins’ side have now surpassed his group from the early 2000s.

Australia’s attack will take one step closer to being reunited in Adelaide this week, with Cummins and Nathan Lyon back in the team alongside Mitchell Starc.

Ahead of the third Ashes Test, Geoff Lemon looks back at some of the surprising stories born of the iconic South Australian cricket ground

As England’s team approach the third Ashes Test, it’s tempting to link their tour so far with the Adelaide rollercoaster launched in 1888. Then you realise it’s not accurate because a rollercoaster has to offer some ups as well as downs. Still, perhaps the players can find inspiration in some of the stories of the past that took place at this very ground.

• Paceman has struggled with hamstring and achilles issues

• ‘It’s really flat for him,’ says Australia coach Andrew McDonald

Australian fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes series amid hamstring and achilles tendon injuries.

Injuries have thwarted the reliable right-arm quick in recent years and had forced him to watch from afar as Australia took a 2-0 series lead at the Gabba last week.

Brendon McCullum’s regime may be unravelling but there is rarely any suggestion of what to do next and how the team can be improved

Overprepared. Overconfident. Overblown. Over there. And now just over. We know how this goes from here, don’t we? We know this cycle.

The days since England’s defeat in Brisbane have boiled down to a real-time competition to become the hate-click boss, to describe in the most sensual, eviscerating detail the depth of England’s badness, not just at cricket, but at the molecular, existential level.