England are 1-0 down in the 2025/26 Ashes after capitulating to a defeat in Perth inside two days.
Six sessions was all it took to turn what was touted as England’s best chance to win an Ashes in Australia since 2010/11 into feelings of resignation for a quick defeat by Christmas. Going 1-0 down in Australia is always terminal, isn’t it?
For those considering silencing their early morning alarms for the Brisbane Test, there is some precedent for a turnaround – and when it’s happened, it’s been glorious to watch. For those wanting some recent memories, there are few of them, but a gentle reminder that England were 2-0 down in 2023, only to be denied a memorable entry onto this list by two days of rain in Manchester.
Still, the chances of pulling it off are slim. Since the Second World War, 40 Ashes series have been completed, and only five of them have seen a side which has been trailing go on to claim the urn. To cling to some more hope, in four of those five series, England have emerged holding the Ashes.
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1954/55: Tyson turns the tide
Australia 1, England 3
This was an extraordinary series set against the backdrop of Australian dominance. The England side, led by Len Hutton, which went Down Under at the end of 1954 was the only team to win a Test series in Australia in the years between 1933 and 1970. England arrived outgunned, and went 1-0 down after not playing a spinner in the first Test. What followed in Sydney was extraordinary.
Frank 'Typhoon’ Tyson, bowling off 20 paces and terrifyingly quick, terrorised Australia. He took some return fire, briefly being taken to hospital after being struck on the head, but returned to blast Australia aside and level the series with 38 runs to spare. His 6-85 in the second innings was a warm-up for the 6-16 in 6.3 eight ball overs in Melbourne, bowling Australia out for 111. By that point, Australia were gone, outpaced and genuinely scared for their safety – and who wouldn’t be?
England secured the Ashes in Adelaide, bowling Australia out for 111 again. England have nursed both Mark Wood and Jofra Archer through to the 2025 Ashes series, now more than ever they need them to conjure their own Typhoon.
1956: Laker’s summer
England 2, Australia 1
Eighteen months later, and the backdrop was remarkably different. Tyson was injured, out until the last Test of the series, and rain plagued the summer. It wasn’t raw pace that blasted through the series, but Jim Laker’s mesmeric arm.
Laker was left out of the 1954/55 tour, and was in and out of England’s side for years before. He forced his way in for the Ashes by taking all 10 wickets for Surrey against the touring Australians. That performance opened the door for one of the most extraordinary individual series of all time. His record of 46 wickets is still the most by anyone in a five-match Ashes series.
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Rain meant the sides went to Lord’s still all-square, before Australia went 1-0 up – England all-out for under 200 twice. At Headingley, Laker and Tony Lock dragged England back into the series, sharing 18 wickets on a tricky surface. Then, Laker’s match, the game that immortalised him in cricketing folklore. His 19-90 remains the best bowling figures in a first-class game, let alone a Test, and may never be bettered. In the aftermath of the game, Daily Express cartoonist Roy Ullyett drew the message, “Here lie the Aussies of ‘56 skittled by Laker for next to nix” on a gravestone. A draw at The Oval the following month gave England the series outright.
1981: Botham’s Ashes of miracles
England 3, Australia 2
Does anyone actually need reminding? Ian Botham arrived at Headingley stripped of the captaincy, ridiculed in the press, and seething. War was raging behind the scenes, it was Botham against the establishment, the Australian opposition was secondary. When those 500/1 odds flashed up on the screen in Leeds, Botham had a personal challenge. He turned them around in an afternoon, before Bob Willis finished the resurrection the next morning.
Botham did it again at Edgbaston in the next Test, blowing Australia away with 5-11, before sealing the series at Old Trafford with a rapid hundred. It was a one-man epic which lasted a summer, and became a one-word shorthand for revival when all seems lost.
1997: A brief, flickering hope
England 2, Australia 3
In hindsight, the most surprising thing about 1997 is that England were leading an Ashes in the 90s at all. The Warne and McGrath era was established, and Australia were dominant. Nevertheless, English optimism heading into the series wasn’t misplaced. They beat Australia 3-0 in the preceding ODIs, and had confidence from a 2-0 series-win in New Zealand over the winter. Meanwhile, Australia were distracted by a dispute between Mark Taylor and the ACB, and in a slump of form and injuries – most notably the tear in Warne’s shoulder.
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The opening Test seemed to confirm those hopes. Australia elected to bat, and were bundled out for 118. Birmingham was raucous as Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe piled on 345 runs between them. They quieted when Australia put on over 400 themselves including Taylor’s career-saving hundred, but England left Edgbaston leading. It didn’t last. But for a moment, there was belief.
Australia rallied at Lord’s, McGrath vengeful. He took eight wickets as England were flattened for 77 on day one, and they never really recovered. Rain meant the Test ended in a draw, but something had shifted. England were never ahead in the series after that, and when Warne came back into play at Old Trafford, the nightmares were back. Australia dominated the next three Tests and sealed the Ashes with ease in the end. England salvaged a consolation victory in the sixth Test, but far, far too late.
2005: The golden summer
England 2, Australia 1
If 1981 was the miracle, then 2005 was the revolution. England’s senior players currently touring Australia were teenagers when Ashes fever swept the country, and the younger members of the squad would have come through county academies in its aftermath. The 2005 Ashes was the story which would have echoed through their formative years, used to define what’s possible, and the zenith of how the game should be played.
Simplistically, there are several parallels to Vaughan’s firefighters in England’s current lot. In 2005 England had a pack of hostile fast-bowlers, different to the medium pacers they’d fielded in previous years. They were instructed to never take a backwards step against an Australia side who had bullied them for a decade, and a young flamboyant raw talent had transformed their middle order. Just change the date.
At Lord’s 20 years ago, Steve Harmison tore into Australia’s top order with the kind of hostility Australian players hadn’t previously experienced in England, and Kevin Pietersen introduced himself to an audience he would hold captivated for the next decade. It wasn’t enough for the match, but it was a warning shot. Edgbaston became legend, ending with Brett Lee on his haunches in the middle and Vaughan screaming at the sky.
Old Trafford followed, with England denied a series lead, again unable to knock over Lee. An Andrew Flintoff inspired victory straight from the Botham playbook made up for it at Old Trafford, and by the time the series made it to The Oval, the country was hooked. When Pietersen walked out to bat on that sun-soaked day in South London, everything changed in one exhilarating knock. The Ashes were England’s and Australia had been broken.
If England are to claw their way back into this 2025/26 series, there’s a clear template built on individual brilliance and generational talent. It’s happened before, and if it happens again, it will be a series etched into Ashes legend.
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