Lamenting England’s twin batting failures in the lost Perth Test of the Ashes 2025-26, former England captain Michael Vaughan went on a monologue, slamming the methods of England’s batsmen that led to an eight-wicket defeat for Ben Stokes’ team.
The Perth Test was dubbed as a great chance for England to begin their Ashes 2025-26 sojourn with a victory given their five-man pace attack and the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in Australia’s line-up.
However, the England batsmen couldn’t bat for more than 35 overs in either of their innings, thus failing to even get the debutant Brendan Doggett for more spells, or test the consistency of Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland when they have to return to their fourth spells, while Nathan Lyon was used for only two overs in the match.
The pitch for this Test at the Optus Stadium was not as spicy as last year’s surface used for the India vs Australia game, which India won. Yet, the capitulation of England’s batsmen on day 2—England lost nine wickets for 105 runs in the second session—meant a target of 205 was set. With the pitch now settling down nicely on day 2, this target became more than just achievable and simply not enough when Travis Head got going.
You can’t be competitive without brains: Michael Vaughan
The core of England’s middle order—Ollie Pope, Joe Root, and Harry Brook—all were dismissed playing drives well outside the off-stump, and that triggered a collapse, while Zak Crawley was dismissed by Starc in both innings for a duck driving loosely.
Vaughan opined that England have resources to do well in this series, but the players need to use their “brains” to be competitive in Australia.
“They have the tools to be really competitive, but you can’t be competitive without brains … This is going to hurt England, it’s going to damage them I think,” Vaughan said on Kayo Sports.
“I thought after yesterday’s play England had opened up a few cracks in the Australian batting lineup. You can’t just play one way, which is what they’ve done, and they’ve come unstuck today and they came unstuck yesterday.”
In Perth, Vaughan felt shades of how England squandered match-winning opportunities in the Ashes 2023 at home, which ended in a 2-2 draw, but he felt England “were the better team.”
“Here, two years later, they’ve done exactly the same in the first Test of a massive series They were always going to be judged on these seven weeks. They are going to have to pick themselves up. Ultimately this is a big, big blow for this group of England players,” the former England skipper asserted.
AUS vs ENG Ashes 2025-26: When is the second Ashes Test?
The second Ashes Test is scheduled to begin on December 4 at the Gabba in Brisbane. With the Perth Test ending in only two days, players will get a gap of around 12 days.
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