From averaging three to 115: Ashes form guide for every Aussie and Englishman

3 weeks ago 9

Despite having made 232 against Sri Lanka in January, Khawaja has struggled against high-quality pace bowling for the past two years and a slow start to the Ashes could have the wolves at his door. Has started the summer brightly with a half-century in each first-class outing, but England’s speedsters will fancy their chances.

Jake Weatherald

Sheffield Shield: four matches, 301 runs at 37.62
One-Day Cup: two matches, 28 runs at 14

Weatherald’s expected Test debut comes on the back of 900 runs last summer and his proactive approach at the crease. A match-winning 94 off 99 balls in a low-scoring thriller against WA sealed his call-up to the squad for Perth. Hasn’t cashed in in two one-dayers and a Shield game since though.

Marnus Labuschagne

Tests: one match, 39 runs at 19.5
Sheffield Shield: four matches, 402 runs at 67
One-Day Cup: four matches, 338 runs at 84.5

Could not have done any more than pile on five centuries in eight games for Queensland since being dropped in the West Indies. Has scored at a decent clip all summer after revisiting a series of basic batting drills with his coach Neil D’Costa – a far cry from the bogged-down figure of last season’s series against India.

Steve Smith

Tests: three matches, 206 runs at 34.3
Sheffield Shield: two matches, 231 runs at 115.5

Like Labuschagne, albeit from a far smaller sample size, Smith looks to be in good touch. After scoring almost half of NSW’s runs in a Sheffield Shield thrashing by Victoria last week, Smith was bemused by suggestions the pitch had been difficult to bat on. He averages almost 20 runs more as Australia captain.

Travis Head

Tests: four matches, 244 runs at 30.5
ODIs: three matches, 65 runs at 21.66
T20Is: six matches, 78 runs at 15.6
Sheffield Shield: one match, 21 runs at 10.5

Australia’s most destructive man with the willow has endured a lean trot since a series of starts and two half-centuries on tough batting decks in the West Indies. Head’s past 10 innings (in ODIs and T20s against India and New Zealand, and last week’s Shield outing for South Australia) have yielded just 167 runs. That said, he followed up his last lean start to a summer in 2022 with 99 and 175 against the Windies when the Tests rolled around.

Cameron Green

Tests: four matches, 188 runs at 23.5
Sheffield Shield: three matches, 195 runs at 32.5, two wickets at 21.5

Timed his last-start 94 against Queensland to perfection, just as Beau Webster’s all-round credentials were being stacked up against his. Green added the 20 overs that selectors wanted to see from him with the ball, at a decent pace. His Test numbers from the West Indies don’t fully demonstrate the progress he made at No.3 in a low-scoring series.

Alex Carey

Tests: four matches, 253 runs at 31.6, 14 catches
ODIs: two matches, 33 runs at 16.5
T20Is: three matches, eight runs at 4
Sheffield Shield: two matches, 126 runs at 31.5
One-Day Cup: one match, eight runs

No need to fret about his place, though a largely lean trot with the bat is less than ideal. A first-innings 59 against Tasmania last week was a good step forward and demonstrated again his knack of delivering crucial lower-order runs when his side needs them most.

Mitchell Starc

Tests: four matches, 20 wickets at 16.45
ODIs: three matches, three wickets at 38.33
Sheffield Shield: one match, five wickets at 27.8

Struggled for rhythm against India, but looked dangerous at the SCG in his one hit-out for NSW. Starc’s 20 wickets in last winter’s Tests continue a rich vein of form that is every chance to continue on the bouncy Perth deck, and then of course with the pink ball at the Gabba.

Nathan Lyon

Tests: three matches, nine wickets at 27
Sheffield Shield: four matches, 12 wickets at 34

Short on wickets so far this summer, though seam and swing have dominated the Blues Shield contests. Lyon turns 38 the day before the opening Test in Perth, where his 29 wickets have come at 20.83 – his best average at Australian venues.

Scott Boland

Tests: one match, six wickets at 6
Sheffield Shield: three matches, 14 wickets at 17.57

Added to the Test XI at Nathan Lyon’s expense in Jamaica, Boland repaid selectors with a hat-trick and six wickets for next to nothing. Has worked through a couple of niggling injuries and a Sam Konstas assault in Melbourne last month – the type England targeted him with in 2023 – to claim a match-winning 5-67 for Victoria.

Brendan Doggett

Sheffield Shield: two matches, 13 wickets at 14.7
One-Day Cup: one match, two wickets at 33.5

Josh Hazlewood’s likely replacement is in superb form with consecutive five-wicket hauls for South Australia, including 6-48 against WA at the WACA. Similar pace and bounce will be on offer again at Optus Stadium for a long-awaited Test debut after Doggett’s own recent injury issues: a hip injury sent him home from the West Indies while a hamstring issue ruled him out of two Sheffield Shield games to start the summer.

Brendan Doggett after taking 6-15 for Australia A against India A last summer.

Beau Webster, Michael Neser

Webster’s eight wickets against South Australia last week have kept him in the Test conversation, when an ankle injury and two matches where he missed out with the bat couldn’t have come at a worse time. Neser’s call-up to the first Test squad comes off a typically consistent start to the summer with 14 wickets in three Shield games.

ENGLAND

Ben Duckett

Tests v India: five matches, 462 runs at 51.33
ODIs: three matches, 11 runs at 3.67

The pugnacious opener made the most of several lives with 92 on Lilac Hill’s featherbed deck on Friday, and he needed the runs. His miserly returns in New Zealand yielded a couple of early caught behinds and a hoicked six that made up half his run tally from three outings. His match-winning 149 in a final-innings chase of 373 against India in June reinforced that, on his day, he is a bona fide match-winner.

Zak Crawley

Tests v India: five matches, 290 runs at 32.22

Possibly England’s most polarising cricketer. In his first red-ball hit since the India Test campaign, Crawley piled on a rapid 82 alongside Duckett against the England Lions. Otherwise, a reasonably productive stint opening in the Hundred for Northern Superchargers that finished in August. Friday will be his first Test at Optus Stadium, but a BBL campaign with Perth Scorchers means Australia’s fastest pitch won’t be a completely foreign prospect.

Ollie Pope

Tests v India: five matches, 306 runs at 34

Pope sewed up his first Test berth with an even 100 at Lilac Hill and added 90 off 67 balls in the second innings to keep rising star Jacob Bethell at bay for now. An underwhelming finish against India (in a series that started so brightly with 106 at Leeds) has the 27-year-old under pressure.

Joe Root

Tests v India: five matches, 537 runs at 67.12
ODIs: three matches, 29 runs at 9.66

Hasn’t scored a ton in Australia – you might have heard – and couldn’t buy a run across the ditch either in three white-ball outings against the Black Caps. An imperious Test campaign against India, with three centuries in as many matches to round out the series, deservedly keeps No.1 in the world. No Pat Cummins (11 Test dismissals) or Josh Hazlewood (10) might be the break Root needs in the first Test.

Harry Brook

Tests v India: five matches, 481 runs at 53.44
ODIs: three matches, 175 runs at 58.33
T20Is: three matches, 98 runs at 49

The only English batter to come out of the New Zealand white-ball games with any sort of form. Brook held the tourists together in Mount Maunganui with 135 (off 101 balls) in a team total of 223. Missed out at Lilac Hill and his T20 record in Australia from a stint with Hobart and in the 2022 World Cup is terrible: 113 runs from 14 innings at 8.07. According to ESPN Cricinfo, Brook has fallen to various forms of spin nine times in that run and has noted the significantly larger boundaries Down Under.

Ben Stokes

Tests v India: four matches, 304 runs at 43.42, 17 wickets at 25.23

Finished with an exasperating 6-50 last Friday as the English Lions consistently holed out hooking and pulling before Stokes struck 77 and 15 not out. Not bad for a first-up trot since late July, when one of the game’s great all-rounders bowled himself into the ground and a 10-week layoff due to torn shoulder muscles. Stokes’ 140 overs against India were 20 more than he’d ever managed in any Test series as he proved the most effective bowler in either outfit.

Jamie Smith

Tests v India: five matches, 434 runs at 62, 20 catches, one stumping
ODIs: three matches, 18 runs at 6

Fell cheaply at the top of the order in New Zealand and walloped 39 not out from 22 balls at Lilac Hill when the “contest” was nothing like the Ashes. Faded out against India with four single-figure scores, but his breathtaking 184 not out at Edgbaston to rescue England from 5-84 was proof enough of an undoubted keeping talent.

Gus Atkinson

Tests v India: one match, eight wickets at 20

A hamstring injury robbed him of all but one Test against India after a breakout 2024 in which he took 52 wickets at 22. Wickets for Surrey in September bode well, but he took just 1-60 from 16 first innings overs at Lilac Hill. Has been clocked at 152km/h.

Brydon Carse

Tests v India: four matches, nine wickets at 60.88
ODIs: three matches, four wickets at 37
T20Is: three matches, three wickets at 17.33

One of England’s few all-format bowlers, Carse sat out the first day of the tour-match before returning with three second-innings scalps and going at almost six an over on the sedate Lilac Hill deck. Has wickets in him, but can go for runs as well.

Jofra Archer

Tests v India: two matches, nine wickets at 28.66
ODIs: two matches, three wickets at 25.33

A slew of white-ball wickets – with venom and pace – against South Africa in September have raised hopes one of the most exciting figures in world cricket is primed for another Ashes assault. Realistically, anything more than three Tests out of Archer this summer will surprise.

Mark Wood

Tests: N/A

Pulled up sore after the tour’s first hit-out with hamstring tightness, but has since been cleared of any serious damage. Though whether England risk him in the first Test remains to be seen. Has been their best bowler in the past two Ashes series, but hasn’t played a Test since August 2024.

Josh Tongue

Tests v India: three matches, 19 wickets at 29.05

Emerged from the run-heavy India series with his reputation enhanced and more wickets than any of his countrymen. Followed up with strong form in the Hundred and 15 wickets in two County games for Nottinghamshire.

Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Shoaib Bashir, Matthew Potts

All-rounder Jacks is pushing incumbent spinner Bashir for a start when England turn to spin in this series, while Bethell struck a second-innings 70 at Lilac Hill to keep Pope honest.

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