One of the most anticipated Ashes series in living memory begins in Perth in the early hours of Friday morning and Matthew Ireland has picked his five players to watch over the next seven weeks.
The highly anticipated 2025-26 Ashes begin in the early hours of Friday morning, and here is our list of the top five players to look out for over the winter.
Joe Root
There is little England’s greatest batter has not achieved but success in Australia is the final frontier for Root.
Debate rages as to whether or not he needs to score a century down under to be considered a true great of the game, but there is only one way the Yorkshireman can prove the detractors, most of whom are Australian, wrong.
Root has never won a Test, let alone a series down under, so that is another item on his checklist this winter, and England’s hopes of emulating the class of 2010-11 will be carried by Root more than anyone else.
Jofra Archer
England are putting their faith in pace down under and the return of Jofra Archer after four years away from the Test arena this summer was key to their Ashes plans.
Injuries have curtailed Archer’s Test career but he has been carefully managed in his latest recovery with this winter’s tour in mind.
Archer’s return against India could not have gone much better. A wicket with his third ball back in England whites was the perfect start for the 30-year-old and he went on to take nine wickets in two Tests against India.
Australia know Archer’s qualities only too well from the 2019 Ashes series and this winter’s series could be a career-defining one for the seamer.
Steve Smith
Steven Peter Devereux Smith has been the scourge of England on more occasions than the Barmy Army will care to remember.
Smith has plundered 3,417 runs, scored 12 centuries and averages over 56 in Ashes cricket, and, like opposite number Root for England, Australia’s batting card rests on the fortunes of their number four.
Smith will captain the Aussies in the first Test in Pat Cummins’ absence and has the potential to cement his status as one of the greatest Ashes cricketers in history with another virtuoso series.
Mitchell Starc
With Cummins and fellow Australian quick Josh Hazlewood ruled out of at least the first Test, Mitchell Starc’s role in the home bowling unit takes on even greater importance.
This winter’s series will be almost certainly the 35-year-old’s final Ashes contest on home soil and potentially the last full stop.
Starc’s ability to swing the ball into right-handed batters late and at high pace has been the hallmark of his Test career, and with England boasting as many as nine right-handers in their XI for the first Test, it will be up to him to lead from the front.
Starc is the undisputed king of the pink ball, too, so the second Test in Brisbane, which will be a day-night contest, is the perfect stage for him to advertise the qualities that have helped him take 402 wickets in 100 Tests for Australia.
Jamie Smith
The battle between wicketkeeper-batters Smith and Alex Carey could be a running theme of the 2025-26 Ashes.
Both are accomplished with the gloves and are a reliable source of runs for their teams at number seven.
Smith has taken to Test cricket like a duck to water and averages 48.86 in 15 matches with two centuries.
He began this summer’s five-match series against India in great form with the bat and behind the stumps, scoring a majestic 184 not out and 88 in a losing cause at Edgbaston, but his output diminished as the series wore on.
That was his first five-match series in the Test arena, so England will hope he has learned from the experience before the biggest five-Test clash of them all.
