Was the 2023 Ashes the most interesting ever?

[MenInG]

Clearly one of the best Test series since a very long time!

We had drama in almost every day's play and each of the games ended leaving the audience asking for more.

In my memory, I have yet to come across any series which has captured the public's interest like this one.

How do you feel about it?

 

[Savak]

England were the better side in the series despite Anderson being shot. England needed Mark Wood in the first test match. This series should have been 5-0 in favour of England. Australia were brutally exposed in Nathan Lyon's abscence.

 

[Amjid Javed]

England got their bowling selections wrong in 1st two tests, also the fact they wanted to play on flat / fast wickets didn't help them, it's only in last 3 tests when wickets were sporting England then looked better then Australia.

Good series apart from the whinging from both side on spirit of the game and the whole old ball replaced with new ball farce in last test.

Was excellent cricket to watch though.

 

[Amjid Javed]

England were the better side in the series despite Anderson being shot. England needed Mark Wood in the first test match. This series should have been 5-0 in favour of England. Australia were brutally exposed in Nathan Lyon's abscence.

Aussies deserved to win 1st two tests, England's arrogant declarations in 1st test and the lack of intelligence in 2nd tests when 180/1 in 1st inns deserved defeat. Bazball in theory sounds good but England got to full of themselves rather then some intelligent tweaks which would have helped. On flip side Aussies will be kicking themselves for throwing a 2-0 lead away, there rotation of bowlers during series got worse as England's got better.

 

[sindhiboy]

England were the better side in the series despite Anderson being shot. England needed Mark Wood in the first test match. This series should have been 5-0 in favour of England. Australia were brutally exposed in Nathan Lyon's abscence.

England were definitely the better side and deserved to win 3-2. Woakes and Wood had a huge impact, their wickets and runs were the only reason england won the 2 tests.
The one test that england totally dominated was rained out.

 

[boomboomcheema]

Would have been the perfect Ashes or he Best Test series ever if not for the Rain preventing a 3-2 comeback win by England. Still a very memorable series.

 

[Saj]

There was some very good cricket and performances, but I always feel that the hype created by the media of both nations makes it look better than what it actually was.

 

[Major]

I didnt watch it but i loved the hype.

The bairstow out, the ball change.

God dammit, we have missed out on alot of discussion points. We need to go back in time and start popping out threads on what has happened in the last few weeks in cricket. I wonder what the take was here on the bairstow stumping

 

[Savak]

Outside Indo Pak contests, the only real money making venture for the ICC

 

[Technics 1210]

Bazball exposed.

 

[U$ofA]

Was very entertaining for me. Though I did not have the time to watch most of it, just checking the scores at the end of day and watching the highlights was interesting. I am sure live would have been even more.

 

[U$ofA]

Outside Indo Pak contests, the only real money making venture for the ICC

ICC does not get any $$$ from Ashes.

 

[Seam Specialist]

Bitter sweet series for me. The washout for the 4th Test kinda made the 5th Test less important in terms of the Ashes but winning the 5th Test for Australia ment a series win in England that many haven't seen in their lifetime. Australia had everything going for them and by day 4's end, I had Australia as favourites to chase down the total but incompetency from officials destroyed this when they changed the ball.

The 5th Test definitely opened a can of worms in terms of match preparedness for the match officials. The ball change was just a failure of match officials and ICC (if they are responsible for maintaining a variety of balls). There should of been other options than to give them an almost brand new ball. Was the ball really damaged enough that there would be negative effects for the bowling team? Should the batsman not get a say if a situation arises like this because they would be the most affected by a brand new ball?

A full strength Australian team is definitely better than the a full strength England team, Nathan Lyon was sorely missed by Australia while it seemed England picked the best team when Australia lost a key member.

 

[hoshiarpurexpress]

Yeah it was a rollercoaster bazballing. If England had not declared on 393 on day 1 what could have been.
The batting was fun to watch and cricket was of great quality.

 

[James]

Very good series… probably the best Ashes to watch since 2005. The pendulum constantly swung this way and that up until the last day of the series. Edgbaston, Headingley and the Oval were incredible Test matches in every way.

Despite the thrills, it goes down as a bit of a missed opportunity for England, because they probably edged the cricket in terms of “sessions won” and could/should have taken the series 3-2 or 3-1 as they finished the series stronger; but at the start of this Ashes, England seemed a bit undercooked and sloppy & made some mistakes which were punished by a sharper and more professional Australia.

Brilliant all round performances for England from Woakes and Wood, a great farewell series for Broad, mature batting from Root and Stokes, Bairstow improved a lot in the final two games, and a breakthrough summer for the impressive Zak Crawley.

For Australia the best batsman was Khawaja by far as their middle order wasn’t as resilient as anticipated, although Smith still looked good at times. Marnus got a bit exposed in the conditions and didn’t look like a 60 averaging batsman. Warner should step aside for a younger opener and retire. Cameron Green didn’t live up to the hype and was very disappointing. Mitchell Marsh conversely looked great as the all rounder, useful bowling and fantastic clean batting and ball striking, and what a career comeback this was from him.

Starc bowled magnificently all series, with Cummins never giving up but surprisingly expensive with the ball by his standards. Lyon’s injury was a key moment and showed their reliance on him as a game changer — despite in his absence young Murphy looking very tidy and promising.

The series result could have been anything really, with 2-2 probably just about a fair reflection in the end. Congratulations to Australia for retaining the Ashes.

Again it feels like England will be kicking themselves a bit, but considering they were 2-0 down after 2 Tests of a 5 game series, coming back for a 2-2 and being the better team in the second half of the series whilst sticking to their principles of positive cricket is no mean feat, and it was a pretty good effort from them in the end.

A fun series and good for Test cricket.

 

[Amjid Javed]

The constant crying between 2 teams was a bit of a let down as cricket in general was good.

Bairstow run out - correct as he tried exact same thing when keeping. England crying about spirit of game was hilarious

Starcs catch - correct didn't have control of ball

Root crying about playing till 10pm - how about shut up and improve pathetic over rates all series

The new ball replaced the old one, shambles from umpires and changed the momentum of the test

Stokes "review" when he knew he's dropped ball in release of catch - again pathetic, where was "spirit of the game" here?

 

[adi_62941]

Waiting for @Mamoon to come and criticize the bazball strategy that why it is making dull conventional test cricket so exciting to watch

 

[Ahmed216]

There was some very good cricket and performances, but I always feel that the hype created by the media of both nations makes it look better than what it actually was.

Fully agree. The quality of cricket was not the best u’ll see but media hype made it look better

 

[James]

Fully agree. The quality of cricket was not the best u’ll see but media hype made it look better

I think the quality of cricket in 2005 was higher, with Trescothick/Strauss/KP/Flintoff/Jones and the great Australian side with Ponting, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath etc, but the entertainment value in 2023 was close to being on par.

 

[sweep_shot]

I think it was the 2nd most interesting.

Best Ashes was still the 2005 one.

 

[Sunzi]

No not really.

Australia played boring negative cricket. Personally didn't even think they were good enough.

The interest came from England throwing away the first two tests, and needing to win the remaining matches to keep the series alive, in attempting to assert Bazball on the Aussies and persisting with the mantra against all logic.

Bazball with a bit of thought would have made this a non-contest.

I suppose... because of England's erratic performances the series piqued interest in that regard but as a sporting spectacle between supposedly even contested teams, it was anything but.

 

[Ali T]

I think the quality of cricket in 2005 was higher, with Trescothick/Strauss/KP/Flintoff/Jones and the great Australian side with Ponting, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath etc, but the entertainment value in 2023 was close to being on par.

Brings back memories.

Warne bowling Strauss during the final spell of the day.
Simon Jones’ late swing.
Flintoff in the form of his life.
It was awesome to watch .

This years ashes was one of the best but don’t think I’ve been more captivated than the 2005 ashes.

 

[Markhor]

Most of the Ashes series since 2005 haven't lived up to the hype but this time I paid for a NOW TV subscription and it was worth every penny.

Whatever England say publicly, they know those first two Tests were for the taking. The premature declaration at Edgbaston, and the suicidal response to Australia's short-ball ploy at Lord's meant at 2-0 down they were always at the mercy of British weather intervening in one Test.

The selection of Jimmy Anderson was a triumph of sentimentality over logic. Tongue was unlucky to be benched. Jimmy looks done and arguably should've joined his mate Broad (who had a fairytale ending) into retirement.

However the introduction of Chris Woakes and Mark Wood (and Nathan Lyon's injury) was a turning point as Australia began to fade and look leggy.

If the four Tests that ended in results all going down to the wire wasn't enough, the controversies added to the drama. Forgive me if I miss anything:

#1 BAIRSTOW'S DISMISSAL AT LORD'S: Simply dozy cricket from Bairstow. Bairstow doesn't get to decide when the ball is dead, the umpire does. Carey wasn't waiting for Bairstow to leave his crease as he immediately released the ball and hit the stumps, so where was the alleged cheating ?

#2 LONG ROOM FRACAS: I was astonished and appalled by the reaction of the Lord's crowd. Of all the people you'd think understand the laws of the game. They were angrier about a legitimate dismissal than when Pakistani players were caught spot-fixing !

#3 STARC'S NON-CATCH: Not out. He wasn't in control of his body and the ball. The ball slid along the ground so again the right decision.

#4 SMITH RUN OUT DECISION: I'm still unclear what happened but think benefit of doubt should go to the batsman so again right call.

#5 THE BALL CHANGE: That was scandalous umpiring from Kumar Dharmasena and Joel "you have to overturn your decision" Wilson. That ball change was not like-for-like and transformed the game when AUS were cruising. The fourth umpire should also take some responsibility for presenting that batch of balls which all looked newish.

All this talk of moral victories are nonsense. A 2-2 draw was about right and credit to both teams for producing one of the best Test series of the modern era.

 

[Justcrazy]

2005 was the best I have seen in my life. The England pace attack was unique and complete. Australian team was much stronger on paper. Very very tight games in that series.

 

[TheSultan]

I think the quality of cricket in 2005 was higher, with Trescothick/Strauss/KP/Flintoff/Jones and the great Australian side with Ponting, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath etc, but the entertainment value in 2023 was close to being on par.

I agree - the 2005 was of a much higher quality. England had 3 90+ bowlers and Aussies had one 95+ bowler.

The introduction of Mark Wood was a game changer for England and he was the only consistent 90+ bowlers in the series. Imagine in 2005, England had 2-3 of them. None as individually quick as Mark, but consistently as a unit miles quicker.

Anderson, Robinson and Broad were pedestrian. Woakes was the best fast-medium bowler and really he’s just an up and down english seamer in English conditions. Effective on these surfaces, but hardly of the quality of 2005.

Australia too - as a unit, a good bowling attack but not really exciting like Lee and Warne in 2005.

 

[Gilly]

The series was good cricket but didn't look good. Seeing Steve Smith's mother leave during a match due to crowd abuse and the constant chants of cheating because the English supporters didn't know the rules made for some less than classy moments. Top that off with the vulgar behavior from the MCC long room made it one of the worst series played. Not a good look for cricket. Cricket Australia will need to promote series against India as the marque series for Australia to get some of the interest back. England got too emotional and lost sight of contest. I think the ashes lost some of its importance and tradition. A series I think everyone will soon forget.

 

[Bewal Express]

Need an option for 23, 05 and 81. The 05 was definitely higher quality but overall this had more closer finishes

 

[Rana]

Australia ran out of steam in the last 2 Tests but let’s not forget, they played 6 Tests in the space of 5-6 weeks

 

[Rana]

Australia played 6 Tests in 5-6 weeks

Pakistan plays that many in 365 days

 

[Technics 1210]

Lets be brutally honest, the only reason why there was more hype than usual for this Ashes series was simply because of 'Bazball'.

Well Bazball cost England the 1st 2 Tests, and the rest is history. England can claim moral victory, can claim they were robbed by the rain, but Bazball was exposed along with dodgy team selections, including Bairstow and Ali.

Not to mention the English media were loving the controversy, in particular Bairstow's run out. Rinsing the sports news and channels just for the clicks.

England had not played a 5 match Test series under Bazball, this was their first, and it showed.

2005, then 2010/11, trounce this overrated series.

 

[MenInG]

I will predict that the India England series will be MUCH more interesting now that England have laid down the marker.

 

[hassan918]

No, 2019 Ashes was more interesting than the 2023 Ashes.

 

[Justcrazy]

2005 series was the best I have seen , the skills on display was another level.