What a day. There is nothing like Ashes cricket. Test cricket is great, but no other series feels like this. It felt like a huge event, with so many travelling England fans and amazing home support too.

Mitchell Starc has taken a career-best seven wickets for 58 runs as Australia bundled England out for 172 despite losing the toss in the Ashes cricket series opener

BRUISED, battered, covered in strapping and needing medical treatment, Australia’s batsmen must have felt they entered a war zone. Ben Stokes seized the most wickets as the Ashes began but it was

Veteran quick Mitchell Starc was in devastating form, taking a career-best 7-58. But by the close, Ben Stokes was bouncing through Australian batters — and then the celebrations of his England team-mates — to bag 5-23 himself to ensure the visitors sleep well ahead of tomorrow’s second day, when Australia will resume on 123 for nine.

England seized a 49-run lead over Australia after a chaotic Ashes 2025-26 opener in Perth, with Ben Stokes' five-wicket burst capping a remarkable day where 19 wickets tumbled on a ferocious surface

Ashes tour represents culmination of English cricket's Test reboot, amid reasons for optimism unmatched in 15 years

Winning the Ashes on Australian soil is extremely rare for England. Ben Stokes’s side have a golden opportunity to lift the urn come January and must not waste it.

England is yet to confirm its final XI, but damaging fast bowlers Jofra Archer and Mark Wood may team up to take on Australia in Perth.