The Ashes 1st Test 2025 LIVE updates: Steve Smith leads Australia against England on day one of the series in Perth

3 months ago 14

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Quiz: Are you smarter than Monty Panesar?

Now, to the real fun. For those who missed it, Monty Panesar kicked off a slanging match with Steve Smith that took about a week to get going.

Panesar called Smith a cheat out of the 2018 ball-tampering saga and said England should remind him of it, which no media outlet really picked up, because it was Monty Panesar reheating old gear for a betting agency and cheap clicks.

Steve Smith responded yesterday though, co-ordinating a planted question in yesterday’s press conference so he could bag Panesar’s cringeworthy effort on UK quiz show Mastermind.

Bizarre, entertaining areas. And Panesar has responded once again with a column, but we’re more interested in getting to the real heart of the matter.

How do SMH and Age readers stack up compared to Monty in the trivia stakes?

And for those who’d like to indulge, here is that cringeworthy performance from Monty once more.

12.28pm

Latest: Sounds like England are going without a spinner

The chat from Optus Stadium is that Mark Wood will play for England after a hamstring scare during their tour match last week. Pace, pace and more pace. Delightful contest brewing.

12.24pm

Quiz: Are you smarter than Monty Panesar?

Now, to the real fun. For those who missed it, Monty Panesar kicked off a slanging match with Steve Smith that took about a week to get going.

Steve Smith responded yesterday though, co-ordinating a planted question in yesterday’s press conference so he could bag Panesar’s cringeworthy effort on UK quiz show Mastermind.

Bizarre, entertaining areas. And Panesar has responded once again with a column, but we’re more interested in getting to the real heart of the matter.

How do SMH and Age readers stack up compared to Monty in the trivia stakes?

And for those who’d like to indulge, here is that cringeworthy performance from Monty once more.

12.12pm

Analysis: Can Bazball succeed in Australia?

Andrew Wu has crunched the numbers on the English cricketing phenomenon that is Bazball (and for everyone claiming Australians are allergic/hate it, I personally, am a fan of entertaining cricket) and how the visitors shape up for this tour.

Can England’s departure from traditional play win back the Ashes on our bouncy pitches?

According to PitchViz, Australia is the toughest country in the world to face fast bowling in the past five years. The pitches here are the bounciest, quickest and second most inconsistent – all factors that should discourage extravagant strokeplay.

Since 2020, Australia have the second-fullest average length – 6.22 metres – needed to clip the top of the stumps; that’s about 35 centimetres fuller than in England.

It sounds minor but has a pronounced impact. Look at Joe Root’s record in Australia, where he has not scored a century from 14 Tests across three tours. His average here of 36 is that of a steady player rather than a modern great.

Read the full analysis here.

12.07pm

Watch: Can Joe Root score a ton Down Under?

11.55am

The logistics: Plan your day around these sessions

11.52am

Decent: Will history spook England from bowling?

It’s a lovely sunny morning in Perth and the city is gripped with Ashes fever. My cafe breakfast took 40 minutes to make, which gives you an idea of how many English fans are everywhere.

Australia will want to win the toss and bat but history shows this England team prefer to have a bowl.

They’d be game to do that … given Nasser Hussain’s infamous “we’ll have a bowl” line after winning the toss at Gabba in 2002. Australia were 2-364 at stumps. Jake Weatherald is out in the middle shadow batting.

11.48am

Poll: How does this one play out?

11.47am

The forecast: Perfect cricket weather

11.47am

Welcome to the Ashes

Morning one, morning all,

Welcome to our coverage of the first Ashes Test out of Perth - just a bit doing over in the west.

Not least the Ashes storyline we never knew we needed - Steve Smith plotting an elaborate, choreographed alpha-ing of Monty Panesar. More on that later.

But for now, we’ve got Australia and England finally kicking off one of the most anticipated Test series this century. We’ve got debutants Jake Weatherald and Brendan Doggett. We’ve got Bazball. We’ve got the Barmy Army.

We’ve got Tom Decent, Daniel Brettig and Andrew Wu on the ground. We’ve got the first ball at approximately 1:20pm AEDT and the toss roughly 20 minutes before that.

With no more gilding of the lily, no further ado, just 90 minutes until one of the most beautiful sights on this green earth - the first ball of a Test summer.

Giddy up.