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England have been taught a lesson by Australia in the two-day Test at Perth Stadium. Ahead of the Ashes 2025-26 opener, many said that this is England’s best chance of regaining the urn. However, their Bazball approach fell flat on Perth’s bouncy track. Mitchell Starc wreaked havoc, Scott Boland found form after lacklustre first innings show whereas Brendan Doggett was gifted wickets by the England lineup. After England failed to make the most of the first innings lead and were bowled out for 164 in 34.4 overs, legendary Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin slammed Ben Stokes-led side's reckless approach.
“But how reckless will reckless suffice? I am actually thinking, where will the bandwidth of the word ‘reckless’ remain? If you keep putting everything into that bandwidth, how reckless can even reckless get? Because I am saying that, you know, there are many things. I don’t want to take names of players. Even in the Indian team, there will be many next-generation players who, I mean, the fielders are back on the boundary, yet they take the chance, they hit lofted shots,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin recalls Dravid’s directive to Test batters
England batted 32.5 overs in the first innings and 34.4 in the second. The ball did not even lose its shine before England batters were back in the hut. Ashwin feels that England batters did not give their bowlers enough time to recover and go all out against Australian batters. He recalled former India head coach Rahul Dravid’s advice to batters to bat enough overs and give time to their bowlers to rest up.
“As a batting group, how reckless can you be? Because on the first day, you were knocked out for 172, you lost five wickets in the space of 12 or 15 or maybe 20 runs. After that your bowling attack wrestled the initiative back, gave you a 40-run lead. And your first job as a batting unit is to give your bowlers enough rest. And Rahul (Dravid) bhai always says, give your bowlers overnight rest and see how your bowlers respond. Today they came and cleaned up the last wicket. The England bowlers, I am sure, would have wanted to put their feet up, and in no time they are back on the park looking to defend 200, which is paltry,” he added.
Head cracks open England’s pace lineup
Opening in the absence of an injured Usman Khawaja, Travis Head made a mockery of England pace lineup. Their short ball ploy did not work as Head took the attacking approach, belting 16 fours and four sixes in his 83-ball 123. He got support from opener Jake Weatherald and half-centurion Marnus Labuschagne. Australia won the Test by eight wickets in just 28.2 overs.
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