The Ashes: First Test predictions, team news, betting tips and odds

Australia vs England first Test date, start time & TV info 

Date Friday, November 21 to Tuesday, November 25
Starts 2.20am GMT
Venue Optus Stadium, Perth, Western Australia
Competition Test series
TV TNT Sports 1

The 2025-26 Ashes series begins in the early hours of Friday as Steve Smith's Australia take on Ben Stokes's England in the first Test at Perth's Optus Stadium.

Smith is deputising for injured skipper Pat Cummins in the first match of the five-match series as England bid to end their 15-match winless streak in Australia.  

Australia vs England first Test betting tips & predictions

Best bets

England to hit most match sixes
3pts 11-10 bet365

Harry Brook to score over 70.5 match runs
2pts 5-6 bet365

Marnus Labuschagne top Australia first-innings runscorer
1pt 9-2 BoyleSports

Australia vs England first Test preview 

Several Test legends – or, to borrow Ben Stokes's term, "has-beens" – have voiced their concerns about England's lack of preparation for the first Ashes Test in Perth.

A rain-affected white-ball tour of New Zealand was followed by an intramural warm-up against England Lions while Australia's players were sharpening their competitive edge in the Sheffield Shield.

Victory at the Optus Stadium would silence those critics and, with Australia missing injured fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, England are just 13-8 to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Bet365 punters have been far keener to back England to win the first Test than the series, perhaps anticipating a repeat of Australia's gripping 2024-25 series against India.

The Aussies were thrashed by 295 runs in Perth but rallied to win 3-1 and England's batters should not take their depleted bowling attack lightly.

Spinner Nathan Lyon and left-arm quick Mitchell Starc have shared 55 wickets at the Perth venue, which is hosting its first Ashes Test, while the absent Cummins and Hazlewood snaffled only 31 scalps between them.

Pacy Perth pitch could encourage England's big hitters

Perth tends to produce the fastest Test pitches in Australia and that may help England, who are a tempting bet to hit more sixes than their hosts.

Stokes and his men will be determined to impose themselves early on. Zak Crawley hit the first ball of the 2023 Ashes through the covers for four at Edgbaston, where England declared on 398-8 before the end of day one.

India hit 48 sixes to England's 33 in a run-laden series this summer but Australia tend to take a more pragmatic approach to Test batting.

Stokes, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith love to go aerial and India won the sixes battle 10-2 in Perth last year, when Mitchell Marsh – not part of the Ashes squad – hit Australia's only maximums.

'England's highlights reel will always trump Australia's but 
winning a five-Test series down under requires the grit and consistency'

Click here to read James's unrivalled series preview

England's Harry Brook could make a strong start to the seriesCredit: Getty Images

Back key man Brook to hit the ground running

The top first-innings runscorers in the 2024 Perth Test were India's number eight Nitish Kumar Reddy and Australia's Starc, who came in at number nine.

Second time around, the Aussies were reduced to 17-4 before Travis Head (89) delayed India's victory celebrations so England middle-order man Brook looks a good bet to score over 70.5 runs.

His Test career has featured an extraordinary glut of runs, as well as several rash dismissals, so his shot selection, especially against the short ball, will be crucial in Australia.

Brook's match runs tallies in the 2023 Ashes were 78, 54, 78, 61 and 92 and he scored a scintillating 135 out of 223 in last month's first ODI in New Zealand.

Labuschagne set to lead the charge in Australia's first innings

Marnus Labuschagne was dismissed for two and three in last November's defeat to India but his three previous Tests at the Optus Stadium yielded 519 runs at an average of 103.8.

He started the Australian summer scrapping for an Ashes spot before reeling off five centuries and a fifty in ten innings for Queensland.

Labuschagne certainly has the cojones for Ashes cricket. His Test debut in 2019 came as a concussion substitute for Steve Smith at Lord's, where he made a gritty 59 against a fired-up Jofra Archer.

He followed up with scores of 74, 80 and 67 in his next three innings, responded well to being dropped for July's series in the Caribbean and could punish England at one of his favourite venues. 

Australia vs England first Test team news and predicted line-ups 

Australia

Pat Cummins (back) and Josh Hazlewood (hamstring) are injured so Steve Smith will captain the side and fast bowler Brendan Doggett is set to make his Test debut. All-rounder Cameron Green has been fit to bowl in the Sheffield Shield so could bat at number six, with the uncapped Jake Weatherald opening and Marnus Labuschagne at number three.

Predicted line-up: 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Jake Weatherald, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steve Smith (c), 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Nathan Lyon, 10 Scott Boland, 11 Brendan Doggett

England

England have named a 12-man squad for the first Test with fast bowler Mark Wood and spinner Shoaib Bashir vying for a place in the team. Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue, Matthew Potts and Will Jacks miss out.

Predicted line-up: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (c), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Mark Wood

Australia vs England first Test betting odds

Sign up with bet365 to bet on Australia vs England in the first Ashes Test. Here are the latest odds for Friday's match.

Odds correct at time of publishing

Want more top sports betting advice? Make sure you take a look at Racing Post Sport's tips for more of the latest picks from our experts.

FAQs

How can I watch the 2025-26 Ashes series?

Viewers in the UK & Ireland can watch every ball of the 2025-26 Ashes on TNT Sports.

When is first Ashes Test?

The first Ashes Test between Australia and England begins at 2.30am GMT on Friday, November 21 at the Optus Stadium in Perth.

Who are the favourites to win the 2025-26 Ashes?

Australia are 8-13 favourites to win a third consecutive Ashes series on home soil with England 2-1 to claim their first series success down under since 2010-11.

Why is it called the Ashes?

The term 'Ashes' was first coined after England lost to Australia at The Oval in August 1882.

A journalist for the Sporting Times wrote a mock obituary of English cricket following the defeat which said that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". 

The notion captured the imagination of the sporting public and England captain Ivo Bligh vowed to return home with "the ashes" on their tour to Australia that winter. 

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