2025-26 Ashes Series Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jake Weatherald

As is always the case in a big series, both teams faced selection conundrums heading into the first test. For Australia, the major question was who would partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the batting order. Ultimately, the answer was Jake Weatherald. Born and raised in the Northern Territory, Weatherald was the leading run scorer in the domestic Sheffield Shield competition for the previous season and had started the 2025-26 competition in strong form as an opener for Tasmania.

Fresh selection questions were raised when two pace bowlers, captain Pat Cummins and stalwart Josh Hazlewood, were ruled out of the first test for injury. The reliable Scott Boland and debutant Ben Doggett were chosen to replace them, respectively. Doggett had been a carpenter in Toowomba when he was scouted playing in a local competition, and began his career at Queensland as a rookie in the 2016-17 season. He moved to South Australia in 2021 and took 11 wickets to be named player of the match in the 2024-25 Sheffield Shield final. He had also served as a touring bowler without debuting in previous Australian test series.

The combination of Boland and Doggett meant the Australian Test team had selected two First Nations cricketers in the same team for the first time in history; Boland, only the second Aboriginal men's test player (after Jason Gillespie), is a descendant of the Gulidjan tribe, and Doggett, the third Aboriginal men's Test player, is from the Worimi nation.

For England, the major selection question was the bowling attack they would bring into the first test. Much of the heavily-touted pace attack headed into the first test with questions as to their durability, especially when the express pace bowler Mark Wood sustained a minor injury in a warm-up match. However, England ultimately chose to head into the first test without a front-line spinner and with four bowlers capable of consistently hitting speeds in excess of 140kmh (roughly 87mph); Wood, Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse, and Gus Atkinson. There were some question marks over the form of the English batters, especially Ollie Pope, but England ultimately selected a relatively settled top order.

Besides Doggett, the other incorrect options were also names flagged by commentators as potential opening batter selections for Australia leading into the Perth test (with varying degrees of support from the pundits).

Answer: Day two

England's first innings got off to a sour start, with Zak Crawley falling to Mitchell Starc for a duck (zero runs) in the first over. Starc would go on to torment the Poms, collecting career-best figures of 7 wickets for 58 runs. Only Harry Brook offered some resistance, scoring the team's highest score of 52. England ultimately posted a total of 172 off just 32.5 overs.

The Australians did not fare much better, and by the end of the day's play ended in an even weaker position than the English. Unable to sustain itself against England's all-out pace attack, Australia fell to a score of 9/123 by the end of the day, with Alex Carey top scoring with 26 runs. Usman Khawaja didn't help matters by being ineligible to open the batting due to spending too much time off the field, forcing Marnus Labuschange to come in at the top of the order with debutant Weatherald. When Weatherald fell to a roaring in-swinger from Archer off only the second delivery, Khawaja was still ineligible to take the crease, forcing Steve Smith to form a rescue mission. Ben Stokes proved the chief strike bowler for England, collecting 5 wickets in the day and ending with figures of 5 for 23 off 6 overs in the first innings.

When Lyon fell early on day two, England looked to be in the box seat, holding a lead of 40 runs. Things looked even better at the lunch break for England, having only lost 1 wicket and scoring 56 run to that point. However, England's grasp over the game slipped after lunch, with England falling into a heap. Starc collected 3 wickets and Boland 4, with the tourists posting a paltry score of 164, for a lead of 204.

Khawaja was again ineligible to bat due to his lack of fielding, and Australia sent the dangerous Travis Head to the top of the order at the conclusion of the tea and innings break. This proved to be a master stroke, as he monstered a 123 run innings off only 83 balls. Head reached his century off only 69 balls, the second fastest in Ashes history (behind Adam Gilchrist's century off 57 balls in the 2006-07 Ashes Series). The all-time record in any test match was 54 balls by Brendon McCallum (New Zealand) vs. Australia in the 2015-16 season. Head's success at the top of the order resulted in him opening the batting for the rest of the Ashes series.

Weatherald and Labuschagne ably assisted with scores of 23 and 53 respectively. In the end, Australia chased down the required runs in just 28.2 overs for the loss of only 2 wickets to claim an early 1-0 lead in the series. Starc was awarded player of the match.

Answer: Gabba, Brisbane

Rather than being held at Adelaide Oval, which has hosted the majority of the day-night test matches in Australia in the format's brief history, the second test of the series took place at the Gabba in Brisbane, Queensland. This particular match managed to reach the fourth day. Neither Bellerive Oval in Hobart nor Manuka Oval in Canberra hosted test matches in this series.

Both teams made changes to their selected sides, with Michael Neser replacing Nathan Lyon for Australia. Lyon had been under-utilized in the frantic first test, and with conditions predicted to favour seamers, Neser was selected due to his ability to move the ball in the air and off the pitch. This marked the second time in three tests that Australia entered a test without a front-line spinner; a rarity for the Australian side. Wicketkeeper Carey would tactically stand "up to the stumps" to both Neser and Boland throughout the Ashes, earning plaudits for his clean catches and stumpings. Australia also replaced the injured Usman Khawaja with Western Australian batter Josh Inglis. For the English, Mark Wood took an early exit from the Ashes with injury, replaced by Will Jacks to strengthen the batting lineup and provide some part-time off spin.

Answer: Joe Root

Much had been written in the lead-up to this Ashes about whether Joe Root would finally conquer the last frontier of his glittering career and score a century in Australia, and Joe Root reached that milestone in the second test. With England batting first, Joe Root hit 138 off 206 deliveries in the first innings and finished not out to cap off a stellar hit with the bat. Zak Crawley also managed a respectable score of 76 runs off 93. Unfortunately for England, that was largely the extent of the batting contributions, with four batters scoring ducks. Mitchell Starc struck in the first over of an innings once again to remove Ben Duckett for a golden duck. Ollie Pope, Jamie Smith, and Brydon Carse were the other batters removed without scoring a run. For Australia, Starc was again the chief destroyer with figures of 6/75.

Australia's first innings was perhaps more consistent across the board without a single standout; while no batter was dismissed for a duck, none made centuries either. Stunningly, Mitchell Starc top scored for Australia with an innings of 77. Jake Weatherald (72), Marnus Labuschagne (65), Alex Carey (63) and Steve Smith (61) were the others to reach the half-century mark, with Cameron Green falling agonisingly short of that milestone on 45, after playing a brain-fade of a shot to be out bowled by Brydon Carse. While being England's most expensive bowler, conceeding 152 runs, Carse was the chief wicket taker, colllecting 4 wickets for an economy rate of 5.24. All up, Australia posted a score of 511, which earned them a lead of 177.

England's second innings was not as gallant as its first. A combination of good bowling and poor batting resulted in a second innings total of only 241, for a scant lead of 64. Captain Ben Stokes scored a respectable 50, but no other batters reached that total for England. Michael Neser posted Australia's best bowling figures of 5/42. With just 65 to score to win the second test, Australia reached the required total for the fall of only two wickets (Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne). Steve Smith smashed a six to post a winning total of 69, with Australia winning by eight wickets for a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. Starc was awarded his second player-of-the-match honours for the series.

Answer: Jofra Archer

England had copped much criticism for its preparation and off-field antics in the lead-up to the third test at the Adelaide Oval, but ultimately showed some spirit in the game. Both teams once again made changes to their selected side, with Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon named in place of Neser and Doggett. Khawaja was initially named to fall out of the side, but earned a last-minute reprieve with Steve Smith experiencing vertigo symptoms. Meanwhile, Atkinson left the side for England, with Josh Tongue selected for his first stint of the series. Prior to the beginning of the match, both teams took part in a touching tribute to the victims of the mass shooting in Bondi, New South Wales, on Sunday 14 December 2025, only days before the match.

Jofra Archer was the pick of the bowlers in their first innings after copping some criticism for his body language and demeanour and being involved in a heated verbal battle with Steve Smith in the previous test match. Archer had the last laugh, taking 5 wickets and toiling hard throughout the match.

Answer: Travis Head

Australia batted first in conditions that were expected to heat up considerably in Adelaide, reaching temperatures of 40°C (104°F) and above throughout the five days of play. Wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey topped the scorecard with 106 on his home deck in Adelaide in the first innings. Khawaja, who was originally left out of the side, also made a contribution with 82 runs. Cameron Green continued a lean streak with the bat, scoring a duck. Australia finished with 371 off 91.2 overs.

England's first innings with the bat was not much to write home about. Ben Stokes topped the scorecard with 83 and had a notable partnership with Archer, who scored 51 runs with the bat. No other batter reached the 50-run milestone, and England managed only 286. Pat Cummins, on his return to bowling and captaincy, managed to collect 3 wickets, as did the reliable Scott Boland.

Australia was inconsistent with the bat for its second innings, with some batters copping dismissals they would likely wish to forget and others assisted by some sloppy fielding; Travis Head headlined with his mammoth 170 run innings of 219 balls - his second century of the Ashes to date (and not his last). This was the fourth time in a row that Head had scored a century at his home ground, the Adelaide Oval. Carey managed 72 with the bat, while Khawaja backed up his 82 in the previous innings with a well-made 40. This time, Tongue was England's chief strike bowler with figures of 4-70, while Carse also managed 3-80. Australia managed a total of 349 to post a target of 435.

England's second innings with the bat proved the team had some fight, with Crawley scoring 85 and Smith managing 60. Jacks made a contribution of 47, before falling victim to one of the best catches of the series courtesy of Labuschagne, whose fielding was particularly notable throughout the Ashes series. While showing some resistance and causing some nervous moments amongst the Australian fans and players, the target proved too much for England, who fell in the fifth day for a gutsy team total of 352 runs, resulting in an 82-run victory for Australia and an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Starc, Lyon, and Cummins each took 3 wickets. On a sour note, however, Lyon left the field with a hamstring injury that would see him ruled out of the rest of the Ashes. Carey was awarded player of the match.

Answer: 20

The Boxing Day test match at the MCG began with an air of expectation, with England under the pump to make something of an unsuccessful series. Once again, both teams made lineup changes. Australia once again elected against selecting a specialist spinner, with the injured Lyon replaced by Western Asutralian quick Jhye Richardson (himself returning from injury). Smith and Neser also returned to the side, with Cummins and Inglis making way. Cummins was still recovering from significant back surgery and elected to sit out the rest of the series, with the Ashes already tied up. Meanwhile for England, the out-of-luck Ollie Pope was replaced with Jacob Bethell and the injured Archer was replaced by Gus Atkinson.

An astounding 20 wickets fell in the very first day of the test match, with the MCG pitch favouring the bowling attacks considerably. Australia managed to score only 152 runs as a team batting first, with the bowler Neser managing a top score of 35. Josh Tongue collected a 5-wicket-haul for England, with Atkinson also impressing for his two wickets. England also struggled with the bat, collecting only 110 runs total, with Brook's 41 runs the most for team. Neser backed up his batting performance with 4 wickets, while Boland took 3 and Starc took 2.

At the conclusion of the test match, the International Cricket Council handed down an "unsatisfactory" grading to the MCG pitch due to conditions that unduly favoured seam bowling over batting.

Answer: Scott Boland

With both teams having completed their first innings with the bat on the very first day of the Boxing Day test, Australia had to survive a solitary over in the evening session before re-commencing on day two. Scott Boland was sent as a "night watchman" to see said over out, and succeeded in his task. Unfortunately, however, Australia's second innings on day two was rather forgettable; the team made only 132 runs collectively, with Head the top scorer on 46. Carse, Stokes, and Tongue were the multiple wicket takers for England with 4, 3, and 2 respectively.

Needing only 175 runs to win, England were not entirely convincing in their chase, but reached the required score for the fall of 6 wickets to collect a 4-wicket victory. Openers Crawley and Duckett looked solid to begin, but fell on 37 and 34 runs respectively. In a wild turn of events, Carse was sent out at number 3 for England, apparently on a mission to slog the shine off the relatively new ball, but fell for 6 runs attempting to do so. Bethell also showed further glimpses of his potential to make 40 runs on a difficult batting wicket. This would be the first Ashes victory in Australia for team stalwarts Joe Root and Ben Stokes, and the second test of the series to conclude within two days. Josh Tongue was awarded the player of the match honours for his 7 wickets across the two bowling innings.

Answer: Usman Khawaja

Prior to the Sydney test, Usman Khawaja announced that this match would be his final test for Australia. While he was met with warm applause from the crowd and a guard of honour from England on his way to his second outing, Khawaja finished with scores of 17 and 6, respectively.

Australia made one change to its lineup, with Jhye Richardson making way for the Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster. England was once again forced to replace a pace bowler due to injury, with Gus Atkinson out and Matthew Potts in. Once again, neither team picked a front-line spinner on the basis of the pitch suiting seamers; however, as the match went on, the pitch "behaved" more than some expected, and the part-time spinners showed their worth.

There were four batters to reach 100 across the four innings of the fifth test in Sydney. In the first innings for England, Joe Root reached 160 runs, making this his second century on Australian soil. Harry Brook also made a worthy contribution with 84 runs. Jamie Smith looked solid before playing a rash shot to be dismissed caught off the part-time medium pace bowling of Marnus Labuschagne for 46, in a moment described variously by commentators as "brainless" (Steven Finn), "dumb" (Justin Langer), "filfthy" (Brett Lee), and "rubbish" (Mark Taylor). England made a competitive total of 384. Neser was the pick of Australia's bowling with figures of 4/60.

In Australia's first innings with the bat, Travis Head put an exclamation mark on his Ashes with a big score of 163 runs off 168 deliveries. Steve Smith also played well at his home ground with his total of 138, while Beau Webster was the "not out" batter on 71 runs. Cameron Green and Marnus Labuschagne made 37 and 48 respectively, before both were out playing shots they would likely want back. Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue each collected 3 wickets for England, while on the other end of the spectrum Matthew Potts was targeted by the Australian batters and ended with the regrettable bowling figures of 0-141 in his Ashes debut. Australia's even contributions with the bat resulted in a team total of 567, and an injury to Ben Stokes only made matters worse for England.

England's second innings was dominated by one man: Jacob Bethell. The Barbados-born 22-year-old put together a composed knock of 154 off 265 deliveries. This was not only his first-ever test match century, but his first red-ball century at *any* level of professional cricket. No other Englishman made it past the half-century mark, while Starc and Webster both collected 3 wickets for Australia. There were some other disastrous dismissals, including a run-out for Jamie Smith and a second-ball duck for Will Jacks on an attempted slog straight to a fielder.

Needing only 160 runs to win after the lunch break on the final day, Australia made things perhaps more difficult than they needed to. Australia lost 5 wickets in the process, including a run-out for Labuschagne, and provided other wicket opportunities that England couldn't capitalise on. Smith fell to a beautiful off-spin delivery from Jacks, while Carey and Green did their best to run themselves out in one bizarre passage of play. In the end, Green and Carey got Australia across the line to finish the two not-out batters on 22 and 16 respectively. Travis Head was awarded the player of the match.

Answer: Mitchell Starc

Mitchell Starc was capped player of the series with his 31 wickets; the first time a bowler has claimed at least 30 wickets in an Ashes since another Australian left-arm fast bowler named Mitchell Johnson did so in 2013-14. Starc also made important contributions with the bat, with his average of 26 including two half-centuries eclipsing many of the recognised batters in the series. Other standouts included Travis Head, who made three centuries at important moments at an average of 62.90, and Alex Carey, whose brilliant performance behind the stumps resulted in 28 dismissals as a keeper, not to mention a batting average of 46.14. Steve Smith finished with the one century, but had the second best batting average of the series at 57.2 and made many match-winning decisions as captain.

For England, not many could hold their heads high. Joe Root finished with two centuries, but was largely quiet otherwise. Stokes made some important contributions with the bat and was arguably England's most effective bowler, but had some questionable moments as captain including some tactical blunders. Carse took the most wickets for England and the second most for the series (22), but his bowling average of 30.31 also demonstrated his expensiveness. Bethell was strong in his two outings for the series including a breakout knock of 154, and Tongue appeared the best of England's bowlers in the games he played, with 18 wickets taken in his 3 matches.