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BBC Radio 5 Live

The Test Match Special team bring you the very best reaction, insight & analysis of the Ashes Test series with daily episodes from down under.

Test Match Special

Steve Crossman is joined by Mark Ramprakash, Jack Leach and Durham's Australian coach Ryan Campbell to look ahead to the opening Test of the Ashes series that begins on Friday in Perth. They will also be joined by Australian journalist Geoff Lemon.

They discuss the challenges of touring in Australia, the importance of the opening ball of the series, as well as the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two sides including; the leadership, spinners, pace attacks, and the Aussie top order.

Timecodes:
00:03:43 - expectations of the series
00:12:30 - The importance of the first ball of the Ashes
00:18:12 - Touring Australia and the phoney war
00:23:17 - What should England expect in Perth?
00:33:53 - Ben Stokes
00:45:40 - Australia without Cummins and Hazlewood
00:58:38 - Spinners
01:15:51 - England's pace attack
01:25:20 - Australia's top order
01:30:45 - Joe Root

The Ashes Preview

Every weekday during the 2025-26 Ashes, comedian and statistician Andy Zaltzman poses new a cricketing conundrum.
 
It won’t be easy though. You might want to take it away, share in your group chats and challenge your friends.
 
Andy will reveal the answer the following day.

Test Match Special has live commentary on BBC Sounds with a team including Jonathan Agnew, Simon Mann and Jim Maxwell. England's 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan, legendary Australia seamer Glenn McGrath and ex-England spinners Phil Tufnell and Alex Hartley will be part of the punditry team.

Daily Ashes Quiz: Centuries for nought

Eleanor Oldroyd chats to Phil Tufnell and Alex Hartley, plus we have a look around the Perth Stadium as the countdown to the first Test continues.

It's Ashes week in Perth

Jonathan Agnew and Stephan Shemilt are in Perth where the men’s Ashes begins in just 5 days’ time. Ollie Pope joins us to talk about the pressure of cementing his number three slot and losing the vice captaincy to Harry Brook. Former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie discusses the loss of Josh Hazlewood and a possible Ashes debut for Brendan Doggett and Aggers shares memories of previous Perth visits including playing tennis with the England captain and being seconded to bowl at England players in the nets.

Pope on the pod and Aggers in the nets.

Jonathan Agnew and Stephan Shemilt round up all the Ashes tour news including details of England’s win against the Lions with Ollie Pope again in the runs, and we get an Australian view from ABC Radio reporter Mitch Turner plus England fast bowler Brydon Carse joins the podcast.

Huge Ashes injury blow for Australia

Ollie Pope scored a hundred in England’s warm-up game against the Lions at Lilac Hill. There were also runs for Ben Stokes, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, but Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith missed out.

Chief Cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt rounds up the action in Perth and is joined by cricket author and Times journalist Simon Wilde 

We also get reaction from Zak Crawley and hear from multiple Ashes winner Sarah Taylor who’s part of the Lions coaching set-up,

Pope seals Ashes place with century

Chief Cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt reports from Lilac Hill on a mixed opening day of England’s Ashes tour. Ben Stokes picked up four wickets in his first competitive bowl since July, but there was an injury concern over Mark Wood.
 
Stephan is joined by George Dobell from the Cricketer and we hear from England vice captain Harry Brook.

Wickets for Stokes, but injury worries for Wood

England captain Ben Stokes has been speaking to the TMS pod ahead of his side’s three-day game against an England Lions team on Thursday in Perth. 

He tells chief cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt how England will go "balls to the wall" in the match tomorrow after "has-beens" questioned their limited preparation in Australia. 

Steph is also joined by cricket journalist Rory Dollard and the pair discuss Josh Hazlewood being cleared to join Australia's squad for the first Test and captain Pat Cummins being out. 

The BBC will be providing 24/7 coverage of The Ashes, with full audio commentary on Test Match Special and 5 Live Breakfast at the Ashes, a live text service, a full highlights programme and the TMS Daily Ashes digest on iPlayer. 

Plus, the daily TMS podcast, extensive coverage across social media and a visualised Tailenders at the end of every Test.

Ben Stokes unhappy with criticism from ‘has-beens’

Former England fast bowler David Larter was part of the England squad to head to the 1962/63 Ashes, the last time the team travelled down to Australia by boat. He speaks to the BBC’s Chief Cricket Reporter Stephan Shemilt about his memories of the journey, as well as being made to run round the boat to keep fit, stopping off in Colombo to play a warm-up match, and how he went from being talked about by the Australian press to featuring in a single Ashes Test.

From The Ashes: David Larter

Former England fast bowler Steven Finn, former Australian batter Simon Katich and Australian journalist Melinda Farrell join Mark Chapman to assess Australia's squad ahead of the Ashes. Is it this Australia side’s last dance? Who will open? And how strong is their bowling attack? Plus, the sledging has already started and can Joe Root put his struggles down under behind him.

The BBC will be providing 24/7 coverage of The Ashes. Full audio commentary on Test Match Special and 5 Live Breakfast at the Ashes, a live text service, a full highlights programme and the TMS Daily Ashes digest on iPlayer. Plus, the daily TMS podcast, extensive coverage across social media and a visualised Tailenders at the end of every Test.

How Australia shape up ahead of the Ashes

Jonathan Agnew presents from the Ageas Bowl where there was play for 60 minutes...and then the rain fell. Play was abandoned with England on 7-1 after having finally bowled Pakistan out for 236. Aggers is joined by Michael Vaughan to discuss the little cricket they saw, while Simon Mann chats with England batting consultant Jonathan Trott about his involvement with the team. Following MS Dhoni's international retirement yesterday, Simon, Mark Ramprakash, Isa Guha, Andy Zaltzman and Prakash Wakankar discuss the man, his playing career and his significance to people in India.

Day 4: Here comes the rain again

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