The 2006–07 cricket series between Australia and England for The Ashes was played in Australia from 23 November 2006 to 5 January 2007. Australia won the series and regained the Ashes that had been lost to England in the 2005 series. The five Tests of the series were played at Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. In winning, Australia completed a 5–0 "whitewash", the first time this had happened in an Ashes series since 1920–21. The series was also notable for the retirement of four significant Australian players, namely Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Ricky Ponting was named Player of the Series.

Lead-up Ricky Ponting found himself criticised by journalists on his captaincy and performances in the 2005 series during the run-up to the first Test. When questioned in a press conference on this subject, he said "We didn't perform the way we would have liked and probably I didn't score the runs I would have liked to during the Ashes ... It's important for us to move on, to move forward from that; that is me as a player, me as a captain and the rest of the team as well ... We have managed to do that very well, we've actually played better cricket as a result of that."

Andrew Flintoff, England's captain, called the series "the reason we play ... we are going over there to play in what could be the biggest series ever so there is an excited group of lads ... it is going to be tough. We know that 2005 was something special and whether that can be recreated I am not quite sure ... in England each Test match got bigger and bigger and we got a real feeling of what the Ashes was about."

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper described the series as "the most anticipated Ashes series ever", and tickets were sold out within days of being available for all the games.

Bookmakers were heavily favouring an Australian series victory, with best odds, as at 10 November, being listed on one site as Australia 1–3 to win, England 11–2 to win, and the draw 9–1.

Sale of tickets Cricket Australia made the first tickets available on 1 June, selling only to the registered members of the Australian Cricket Family, who were able to register in the months before the ticket sale. 182,000 of 635,500 available tickets were sold on the first day and a number of buyers immediately put their tickets on eBay at inflated prices. Telephones and internet systems were delayed to such an extent that CA chief executive James Sutherland wrote a letter of apology to the Australian fans, but was still criticised by Brett Judd, the organiser of 1.5 million tickets for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Judd called their approach "farcical".

On 19 June, the remainder of the tickets went for sale to the general public and were sold out within two hours. Cricket Australia later cancelled 1,300 tickets, which they believed had been sold on eBay at inflated prices, as the tickets had "breached conditions of sale".

On 29 December, Cricket Victoria had announced that an excess of 47,000 pre-purchased tickets for the fourth day of the Boxing Day Test were to be refunded, as a result of the Test reaching its conclusion on the third day. Despite the Test lasting only three days, bumper crowds over the duration of the Test ensured that sales had generated over A$8 million in takings.

Squads Both England and Australia went into the series with concerns about the fitness, form and availability of key players: Michael Vaughan, England's successful captain in the 2005 Ashes series, and Simon Jones, England's lowest-averaging bowler during the 2005 series, were unavailable due to injury. Australia selected Glenn McGrath for his first first-class match since he left the game in April for personal reasons. Other former Australian players such as Jason Gillespie were not selected.

The England squad for the tour of Australia was announced on 12 September 2006. Andrew Flintoff was selected over Andrew Strauss as the captain, in the absence of Michael Vaughan through injury. Marcus Trescothick left the squad on 14 November due to a "recurrence of a stress-related illness", after making 10 runs in two tour matches. Ed Joyce was called up as his replacement on 15 November. The Australian 13-man squad for the first Test was announced by Cricket Australia's National Selection Panel on 16 November 2006. Michael Clarke was called up on 18 November 2006 as cover for injury doubt Shane Watson.

On 8 December 2006, a week before the third Test, Damien Martyn announced he was retiring from all forms of cricket. Adam Voges and Andrew Symonds were called up to the squad to replace him.

On 16 December, Ashley Giles left the tour to be with his wife, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was replaced by Jamie Dalrymple.

Andrew Flintoff (c) Andrew Strauss (vc) Marcus Trescothick Ed Joyce Alastair Cook Kevin Pietersen Ian Bell Paul Collingwood Chris Read (wk) Sajid Mahmood Steve Harmison Matthew Hoggard Monty Panesar Geraint Jones (wk) Ashley Giles Jamie Dalrymple James Anderson Liam Plunkett Ricky Ponting (c) Adam Gilchrist (vc, wk) Matthew Hayden Justin Langer Michael Hussey Michael Clarke Damien Martyn Adam Voges Shane Watson Andrew Symonds Shane Warne Stuart Clark Mitchell Johnson Brett Lee Glenn McGrath Shaun Tait

Venues As with other recent Ashes series in Australia, this series was played at the main cricket grounds in Australia's five largest cities.

Test Location Stadium name Capacity Date 1 Brisbane The Gabba 42,200 23–27 November 2 Adelaide Adelaide Oval 53,000 1–5 December 3 Perth WACA Ground 24,000 14–18 December 4 Melbourne Melbourne Cricket Ground 100,000 26–30 December 5 Sydney Sydney Cricket Ground 48,000 2–6 January

Test series First Test

Day one Australia won the toss after Andrew Flintoff called heads. Ricky Ponting elected to bat on a good looking pitch. Steve Harmison bowled the opening over, with the first ball a wide that went straight to Flintoff at second slip. Harmison only lasted two overs, which went for 17 runs, before being replaced by James Anderson. Anderson proved just as expensive as Harmison, conceding 10 runs in his first over in his first Test match for seven months. Flintoff got Matthew Hayden to edge one to second slip on 21. Australia reached lunch without further loss on 1/79.

In the afternoon, Flintoff unexpectedly removed Justin Langer, who had looked set for a century but holed out to Kevin Pietersen at cover point. Ashley Giles, bowling in his first first-class match for 12 months, took the wicket of Damien Martyn but was innocuous, if inexpensive (unlike many of his colleagues), claiming no more wickets during the day. Ponting and Michael Hussey survived the final session of the day to close at 3/346. During the session, Ponting passed 100 runs in a near-faultless display, offering up only one potential lbw shout (given not out by umpire Billy Bowden) when he missed a sweep on a straight ball from Giles. The century took him level with Steve Waugh as Australia's leading century-maker, with 32 each. England's bowling was generally criticised, most notably Harmison, who was given only 12 overs out of the 90 overs bowled during the day. Andrew Flintoff was the only bowler to finish the day with his reputation enhanced, having been England's cheapest and most effective bowler. The pitch, however, was flat and not conducive to either pace or spin bowling and as England failed to use the new ball well at both the beginning and end of the day, it proved to be one of the most frustrating days in the field English cricket had endured in modern Ashes series.

Day two Australia continued their dominance throughout the second day. Ponting and Hussey continued their partnership, putting together 209. Flintoff finally took Hussey's wicket when he was on 86, bowled through the gate, with the off-stump out of the ground, when he had looked set for a century. Matthew Hoggard finally made a significant breakthrough in the afternoon, taking the wickets of Ponting (for 196) and Adam Gilchrist (for a duck) in the same over, both men out lbw. Gilchrist, in particular, was out to a ball bowled from around the wicket from the right-arm bowler Hoggard, a continuation of England's tactics against him in the 2005 Ashes series, which had restricted him to a top score of 49*. Ponting's 196 allowed him to surpass Graham Gooch as the seventh highest Test run scorer of all time (Gooch scored 8,900 runs). Michael Clarke crafted a solid 56 before falling to Anderson, edging a good delivery to slip. Australia's tail wagged, with Brett Lee scoring 43 and Stuart Clark hitting a quick-fire 39 off 23 balls before having his leg stump knocked out of the ground by Flintoff. His innings included two huge sixes off the bowling of Anderson, who ended the innings with figures of 141 runs for just one wicket. Australia were able to declare their innings with the score 9/602 after tea.

England had to negotiate the 17 overs remaining in the evening. After a reasonably solid start, England lost Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook in consecutive balls to Glenn McGrath. Strauss was lambasted for his dismissal, top-edging a pull on a ball too full to be suitable for the shot. Clark removed Paul Collingwood, edging an off-cutter to Gilchrist. This dismissal left England on 3/53 at the close, leaving England in a perilous position, Australia having reached a total more than 200 runs higher in any Test of the 2005 Ashes series before taking three cheap wickets before the close. Ian Bell and Pietersen were the not out batsmen, with scores of 13 and 6 respectively.

Day three Matters continued badly for England on day three and they ended their first innings on 157 all out just after lunch, 246 short of their follow-on target of 403. Bell was the only England batsman to offer any real resistance, spending nearly four hours at the crease before being dismissed by Clark for 50. It was a personal triumph for Bell, who had averaged just 17.10 in the 2005 series, looking particularly vulnerable against McGrath and Shane Warne. England's other specialist batsman, Pietersen, was out for only 16, trapped lbw to a ball from McGrath to which he did not offer a stroke. All-rounder and captain Flintoff was out for a duck, caught behind off what replays suggested was a no-ball (not spotted by umpire Steve Bucknor) from Brett Lee. Brief resistance also came from wicketkeeper Geraint Jones and spinner Giles, who made 19 and a quickfire 24 respectively, but both were out to McGrath. In total, McGrath took six wickets for only 50 runs conceded, a powerful response to critics who had suggested that he was, at 36, too old to be a front-line bowler in an Ashes series.

Ponting chose not to enforce the follow-on and put his team back in to bat, a decision which surprised the majority of spectators and media personnel. Australia's lead of 445 going into the second innings was one of the largest ever held by a team which had then decided not to enforce the follow-on. This decision was in contrast to Michael Vaughan's decision in the 4th Test of the 2005 series, where he had enforced the follow-on with Australia just 259 runs behind. As on the opening day, England's bowling attack was again barely able to penetrate Australia's defences, and the home side were able to end the day on 1/181, the only loss being Hayden who was run out on 37 by Anderson while attempting a risky second run. Langer and Ponting ended the day unbeaten, with Langer on 88, and Ponting on 51 having scored his 9,000th Test run during the innings. The day was the third in a row which had gone badly for England and with the pitch showing wide cracks, offering encouragement to Warne in particular, an Australian victory was widely expected at the close of play.

Day four