Ahead  after day one, series done  by day 11, but competitive in the two-day Tests. Some optimism before, and who doesn’t want to travel hopefully, but  looking at  the cricket in the players over the year building up a fair clue to the way things went.

A  continuing problem with England players simply playing too much?  Against the historical tendency Australia had 10 Tests starting with the series against India in November 2024,  plus one for reaching the WTC final,  England nine from the tour of New Zealand. But there were  striking differences across the formats.

Broadly, for every T20 match played by the Australians, the England players played two.  More Australian names on IPL team sheets, more English in T20 internationals, but most of the difference is down to the respective involvements in the 100, to a lesser extent the Blast, and the Big Bash.

The Australians have had more sense than to run two  domestic T20-type competitions.  Giving up the height of the summer to one of them problematic for spinners: Will Jacks in the series coming in off a year of 49  T20s at one end of the spectrum, Nathan Lyon, none but ten Tests and four Sheffield Shield games at the other. Empathy for the individual player(s) certainly, but a gift of sorts  from  English cricket to the Australians in this context. Maybe the Australians will introduce external funding to the Big Bash and it will be different next time.

The balance the other way for  domestic red-ball:  a  lot of one game  involvement, mainly in the early season games, absences from September finishes a failing of English cricket.  Four Australians appeared in the County Championship in 2025,  cue comment that its openness is a disadvantage for England. Maybe, but the number of past and present international players is also one of its strengths in developing English players.

 

Australian detail on the stats page.