England never recovered from Perth, and neither did this Ashes series
It’s been a dizzying series in many ways, comprising some moments of champagne cricket but many more of poor stuff that spoke to England’s ramshackle preparation for the task and Australia’s numerous vulnerabilities.
With a cover drive to the fence and a clenched fist of celebration in the middle of the SCG, Alex Carey brought the 2025-26 Ashes series to a close with a 4-1 margin for Australia over England.
Carey was a fitting man to administer the coup de grace, for he deserves to share top billing alongside Mitchell Starc and Travis Head as the players of the series.
England captain Ben Stokes (centre) congratulates Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja after the final day of the 2025-26 Ashes series.Credit: AP
Starc’s Compton-Miller Medal is his second such award in successive Ashes series, but Head’s three breakneck centuries and Carey’s combination of sublime glove work and confident batting were the difference in turning 2023’s 2-2 draw into a contest decided in just 11 days this time.
It was a dizzying series in many ways, comprising some moments of champagne cricket but many more of poor stuff that spoke to England’s ramshackle preparation for the task and Australia’s numerous vulnerabilities.
Still, this was a fair margin for an Australian side that overcame considerable odds in terms of injuries and fluctuations to deliver the same outcome as 2002-03, the series where they were led at home by Steve Waugh, who presented the trophy to Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and company.
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Like so many recent series in Australia, the opening round of the bout proved to be definitive. At lunch on day two in Perth, England appeared to be set fair for an opening victory that would at least give them a chance, like India last summer, of making this series a contest until its final match.
But so awful was the subsequent batting collapse, and so outrageous Travis Head’s fourth-innings chase after making the impromptu decision to open the innings, that England contrived to lose that first Test within four hours of sitting pretty. For Smith, there would have been confidence even if Perth was lost.
“Even had we lost that game, we’d take confidence out of what we did against India,” Smith said. “We lost that first Test, which we’re not accustomed to in Australia, and we came back. That was always in the back of our mind – if things didn’t go to plan, we’d continue playing our way.”
Ben Stokes, so often a bellwether of his team's fortunes and mindset, had looked genuinely winded by that result. From the vantage point of Sydney, it was fair to say that neither the touring side nor the series itself ever recovered from that first stunning collision.