The 2025–26 Ashes series, branded as NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes Series for sponsorship purposes, was the 74th edition of the Ashes, a series of Test cricket matches played between Australia and England. The five-Test series was played in Australia between 21 November 2025 and 8 January 2026. The series formed part of the 2025–2027 ICC World Test Championship.
Prior to the series, Australia held the Ashes, having won the 2021–22 series and drawn in 2023. Australia won the first three Tests, to take an unassailable 3–0 lead in the series and consequently retained the Ashes. England won the Fourth Test in Melbourne by 4 wickets, ending an 18-match (14-year) winless streak in Australia in Ashes Tests and preventing a whitewash. In the Fifth Test, Australia won by 5 wickets and thus ended the series with a 4 – 1 series result.
Squads Steve Smith (c) Sean Abbott Scott Boland Alex Carey (wk) Pat Cummins (c) Brendan Doggett Cameron Green Josh Hazlewood Travis Head Josh Inglis (wk) Usman Khawaja Marnus Labuschagne Nathan Lyon Todd Murphy Michael Neser Jhye Richardson Mitchell Starc Jake Weatherald Beau Webster Ben Stokes (c) Harry Brook (vc) Jofra Archer Gus Atkinson Shoaib Bashir Jacob Bethell Brydon Carse Zak Crawley Ben Duckett Matthew Fisher Will Jacks Ollie Pope (wk) Matthew Potts Joe Root Jamie Smith (wk) Josh Tongue Mark Wood
Australia named a 15-man squad for the first Test, with regular captain Pat Cummins unavailable due to injury. On 12 November, Sean Abbott was ruled out of the first Test with a moderate-grade hamstring injury, and was replaced by Brendan Doggett. On 15 November, Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the first Test with a hamstring injury, and was replaced by Michael Neser. On 24 November, Hazlewood was ruled out of the second Test, before being ruled out of the rest of the series on 9 December. Pat Cummins was also added back to the squad and returned to captain the team in the third test. On 23 December, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon were ruled out of the remainder of the Test series due to back issues and a hamstring injury, respectively. The pair were replaced by Jhye Richardson and Todd Murphy.
On 9 December, Mark Wood was ruled out of remainder of the Test series with a knee injury, and was replaced by Matthew Fisher. On 24 December, Jofra Archer was ruled out of the remainder of the Test series with a side strain. On 29 December, Gus Atkinson was ruled out of the fifth Test with a hamstring injury.
Venues
The five venues are Perth Stadium, The Gabba, Adelaide Oval, Melbourne Cricket Ground and Sydney Cricket Ground. The venues and dates for the series were announced by Cricket Australia on 16 October 2024.
Perth Stadium hosted the first Test of the series. This was the first time Perth Stadium hosted an Ashes Test and marked the return of Ashes cricket to Perth, after the city was not included in the schedule for the 2021–22 series.
It was the first Ashes series in Australia not to commence at the Gabba in Brisbane, since the 1982–83 series. Brisbane instead hosted the second Test of the series, which was a day/night match.
Tour matches On 24 July 2025, Cricket Australia announced the fixtures for the warm-up matches. On 29 July, Cricket Australia announced the pink-ball Ashes warm-up match between Prime Minister's XI and England XI. The England preparation was criticised by several former players in advance with the team only playing a warm-up game against England Lions, rather than a more extensive warm-up schedule of First Class or tour matches.
England XI v England Lions
Prime Minister's XI v England XI
Matches
First Test
Second Test
Third Test
Fourth Test
Fifth Test
Statistics Leading run-scorers
+ Rank Name Runs 100s 50s 1 Travis Head 629 10 0 170 62.90 3 0 87.36 2 Joe Root 400 10 1 160 44.44 2 0 58.30 3 Harry Brook 358 10 1 84 39.77 0 2 81.73 4 Alex Carey 323 8 1 106 46.14 1 2 72.25 5 Steve Smith 286 8 3 138 57.20 1 1 63.69 Source: ESPNcricinfo
Leading wicket-takers
+ Rank Name Runs 1 Mitchell Starc 31 153.1 15 618 4.03 19.93 7/58 2 Brydon Carse 22 138.4 13 667 4.81 30.31 4/34 3 Scott Boland 20 159.5 27 499 3.12 24.95 4/33 4 Josh Tongue 18 97.2 5 362 3.71 20.11 5/455 Michael Neser15 82.5 9 299 3.60 19.93 5/42 Ben Stokes 101.1 12 377 3.72 25.13 5/23 Source: ESPNcricinfo
Notes
References
External links
Series home at ESPNcricinfo