Ashes 2025/26 will commence on November 21. Here are the batters touted to become the leading run-scorers.
With 4-0 wins at home in 2017/18 and 2021/22 and 2-2 draws in England in 2019 and 2023, Australia have continued to hold on to the Ashes across four consecutive series now. They will now host England in the 2025/26 season for five more Ashes Tests.
When the Ashes was last played, in 2023, Usman Khawaja had finished as the leading run-scorer, with 496 runs at 49.60. However, the only others to top the 400-run mark were all from England – Zak Crawley (480), Joe Root (412), and captain Ben Stokes (405). Steve Smith (373) was the only other Australian in the top five, all of whom will feature in the upcoming edition.
Don Bradman (974 in 1930) and Wally Hammond (905 in 1928/29), the top two names on the list of the most runs in a bilateral Test series, did so in Ashes contests. In the 21st century, however, the 600-run mark has been breached only four times: Michael Vaughan got 633 in 2002/03, Alastair Cook 766 in 2010/11, and Smith 687 in 2017/18 and 774 in 2019.
Ashes 2025/26: Who is likely to finish as the leading run-scorer?
With odds of 3.25 as per Betway, Root is the likeliest to finish as England’s leading run-scorer at the 2025/26 Ashes. Root is followed by Harry Brook (13/5), Ben Duckett (9/2), Stokes (13/2), Crawley (7/1), Jamie Smith (15/2), and Ollie Pope (8/1).
Smith (7/4), on the other hand, is tipped as the leading run-scorer for Australia by a comfortable margin. The next on the list are Travis Head (7/2), Khawaja (9/2), Marnus Labuschagne (5/1), Cameron Green (11/2), and the uncapped Jake Weatherald (8/1).
