5th Test The Ashes - 5th - Test- 03/01/2026 - Sydney Cricket Ground

Who will win the 5th test?

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .
Bethell's century is the best thing to come out of the tour so far, frankly.

Great innings, and showed that he might have the temperament to match his talent.

Now he needs to get his head down and play some more red ball cricket. Some spring CC matches and then all the Tests next summer. No frickin' IPL for a year!

Then we might just have the middle order sorted for as long as Root wants to keep going.......
 
Close of play on Day 4.

England 302/8 and lead Australia by 119 runs.

What a day for Jacob Bethell 142 Not Out.

If only a couple more of the batsmen could bat the way he has today. Fabulous innings.

Potts at the other end yet to get off the mark. As long as he can stick around for while tomorrow, let Bethell gets some more runs, just to prevent the inevitable a little longer.
 
What a fantastic innings by Bethall.
A 22 year old! In retrospect, he should have played the whole series.
Very frustrating again. Smiths run out and Jack's ridiculous shot second ball. The way that Bethall was playing? Had they stayed in another hour, we may just have had a chance...
 
Hopefully we can put a few more runs on, nice to see a test go to day 5 but with Stokes unlikely to bowl getting the runs they need is going to be a formality for Australia against what is left of our bowling attack. Bethell announcing himself as a potential major talent is plus though, as said above we need to get him playing more long format games, him, Root and Brook (if he can get his head right) is a talented 3 to 5, just need some openers who can do the basics ahead of them.
 
Foley said:
What a fantastic innings by Bethall.
A 22 year old! In retrospect, he should have played the whole series.
Very frustrating again. Smiths run out and Jack's ridiculous shot second ball. The way that Bethall was playing? Had they stayed in another hour, we may just have had a chance...
Click to expand...
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! If he had struggled on those first dodgy pitches then questions would have been asked about why a youngster with limited first class experience was thrown in...
 
I kind of feel quite bad for Will Jacks. He’s had an absolute shocker of a test match. Terrible drop, idiotic dismissal, usurped as part time spinner by Bethell. It’s felt like every facet of his game has been very publicly torn apart as simply nowhere near good enough - quite brutally so!
 
Followtheox1 said:
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! If he had struggled on those first dodgy pitches then questions would have been asked about why a youngster with limited first class experience was thrown in...
Click to expand...
Oh sure,but he could hardly have done worse than Pope and he seems to have a very good temperament, so who knows we could have won one of the early games?
 
So, with some coaching and a more flexible approach from the management, I suppose you could build some sort of test side/squad around:

Bethell, Brook, Root, Stokes, Archer, Tongue, Foakes, Atkinson (possibly). That depends on whether Root wants to keep going, Stokes both wants to and can keep going and Archer can play for longer than a couple of games before he is crocked again.

You still need at least two spinners and some openers, plus (given the injury records of Stokes and Archer) some pretty good ready made replacements.

Edit: Oh ffs - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cd0yjkvxk43o
 
Followtheox1 said:
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! If he had struggled on those first dodgy pitches then questions would have been asked about why a youngster with limited first class experience was thrown in...
Click to expand...
Plenty of people were calling for Bethell to come in for Pope before the Ashes started though so it’s not just hindsight. Would Pope have played that innings? Seems highly doubtful.

I genuinely think if we’d played Tongue and Bethell from the start we’d be in a better position than we are now.
 
ZeroTheHero said:
So, with some coaching and a more flexible approach from the management, I suppose you could build some sort of test side/squad around:

Bethell, Brook, Root, Stokes, Archer, Tongue, Foakes, Atkinson (possibly). That depends on whether Root wants to keep going, Stokes both wants to and can keep going and Archer can play for longer than a couple of games before he is crocked again.

You still need at least two spinners and some openers, plus (given the injury records of Stokes and Archer) some pretty good ready made replacements.

Edit: Oh ffs - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cd0yjkvxk43o
Click to expand...
There are a couple of young keepers who have been mentioned.
I would be surprised if they went back to Foakes
 
Isle of Wight Yellow said:
Plenty of people were calling for Bethell to come in for Pope before the Ashes started though so it’s not just hindsight. Would Pope have played that innings? Seems highly doubtful.

I genuinely think if we’d played Tongue and Bethell from the start we’d be in a better position than we are now.
Click to expand...
We will never know how he would have done in those tests though, just how he has done in this one. I think the major thing that could have made a difference would have been a fit Wood (yes I know that never happens) as he has absolutely genuine pace.
 
Followtheox1 said:
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! If he had struggled on those first dodgy pitches then questions would have been asked about why a youngster with limited first class experience was thrown in...
Click to expand...

I'm beating a dead horse with this one.

But it's not that he should have been thrown straight into the Ashes.

It's that he should have been told to stay home from the IPL in 2025, and play a couple of County Championship games and the Test against Zimbabwe. And then he should have played the whole India series last summer and have been established as our #3 going into the Ashes. That isn't hindsight......I said it at the time, and I've said it at least twenty times on here in the past year!!

You have a guy that you think could be a generational talent, who scores fifties in each of his first three Tests in New Zealand......and then you let him get into a situation where he's being thrown into the final Test of the India series having barely played red ball cricket in eight months? Given that, and given how he struggled at the Oval, you couldn't throw him into the fire in Perth. But it should never have come to that, because he should already have been firmly established in the side.

Gross, gross mismanagement. And the fact that neither Key nor McCullum is seemingly going to pay for that, and all their other myriad failures in the run up and execution of this Tour is similarly gross mismanagement from their bosses, whoever they are.



On a brighter note......glorious innings from Bethell. I think Michael Vaughn said it best.....he played most of his innings in second or third gear, which is all you need for Test cricket. Some beautiful shots but zero needless risks. You don't need to jam it straight into 5th as soon as you get to the crease - save that for t20s. The likes of Brook, Smith, Duckett and Jacks should all be watching and learning how it's done from the kid.
 
tonyw said:
I'm beating a dead horse with this one.

But it's not that he should have been thrown straight into the Ashes.

It's that he should have been told to stay home from the IPL in 2025, and play a couple of County Championship games and the Test against Zimbabwe. And then he should have played the whole India series last summer and have been established as our #3 going into the Ashes. That isn't hindsight......I said it at the time, and I've said it at least twenty times on here in the past year!!

You have a guy that you think could be a generational talent, who scores fifties in each of his first three Tests in New Zealand......and then you let him get into a situation where he's being thrown into the final Test of the India series having barely played red ball cricket in eight months? Given that, and given how he struggled at the Oval, you couldn't throw him into the fire in Perth. But it should never have come to that, because he should already have been firmly established in the side.

Gross, gross mismanagement. And the fact that neither Key nor McCullum is seemingly going to pay for that, and all their other myriad failures in the run up and execution of this Tour is similarly gross mismanagement from their bosses, whoever they are.



On a brighter note......glorious innings from Bethell. I think Michael Vaughn said it best.....he played most of his innings in second or third gear, which is all you need for Test cricket. Some beautiful shots but zero needless risks. You don't need to jam it straight into 5th as soon as you get to the crease - save that for t20s. The likes of Brook, Smith, Duckett and Jacks should all be watching and learning how it's done from the kid.
Click to expand...
I am surprised that McCullum looks set to remain. The whole approach and Bazball seems to emanate from him, and results clearly show that it hasn't worked.
There will need to be personnel changes and a change in approach before thd next home Ashes series which will br very tough.
I guess that the question is- can McCullam and the whole approach change positively?
 
What a disastrous load of s**t this tour has been. Key has to go. The arrogance and lack of preparation is on him. McCullum must be on very thin ice now too.
 
Canterburyexile said:
What a disastrous load of s**t this tour has been. Key has to go. The arrogance and lack of preparation is on him. McCullum must be on very thin ice now too.
Click to expand...
Agree...

yet according to BBC breakfast TV , the very same regime of Key, McCullum & Stokes will be remaining in place( after a post ashes assesment) :rolleyes: :oops:o_O
 
And here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cj4lnxyyrrjo

McCullum saying he "won't be told what to do" and "I am not against assistance but have a firm belief in how to get the best out of these players,"
So there you have it. Despite very obviously *not* being able to get the best out of the players, he will stay on and continue to believe he knows best. Exactly the type of arrogance that has led to this disastrous tour - the type of thing than leads to experienced, world class ex-players being called 'has beens' when they try to offer advice.

A big mistake not to get rid of him.
 
I think any England fan who travelled to watch this series must be angry about the apparent casual approach and lack of application shown by the team, with only a couple of exceptions. Only Root, Tongue and latterly Bethell emerge with any credit. Building an innings as a batsman seems to have gone out of fashion, as has bowling at the stumps. Both traceable in my opinion to the dominance of one day 'cricket'.
 
Trevor L said:
I think any England fan who travelled to watch this series must be angry about the apparent casual approach and lack of application shown by the team, with only a couple of exceptions. Only Root, Tongue and latterly Bethell emerge with any credit. Building an innings as a batsman seems to have gone out of fashion, as has bowling at the stumps. Both traceable in my opinion to the dominance of one day 'cricket'.
Click to expand...
Agree 100%
I'd add Archer for the first few Tests as a credible team member- albeit the seemingly inevitable 'injury' ruling him out for a few tests
 
BBC Sport asked their readers to pick the combined Ashes XI...

www.bbc.co.uk

The Ashes 2025-26: Who made your team of the series?

Find out which players made the cut into the BBC Sport team of the series for the Ashes.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

...and they have managed to pick SIX England players in the XI. Absolutely deluded.
 
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