BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 29: Ben Stokes of England wipes his face after bowling during an England nets session at Allan Border Field on November 29, 2025 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)
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When the first batch of 2025 Ashes tickets was released in June, the uptake was compared to the world’s most famous pop star. “People are telling me this will probably be the biggest ticket pre-sale in this country since Taylor Swift, ” said Cricket Australia’s CEO Todd Greenberg.
After England’s two-day Test defeat in Perth, the cricket ‘concert’ came to an abrupt end. Cricket Australia counted the loss of days three and four at $3 million. Even the Barmy Army’s set list couldn’t make up for the eerie silence.
The lyrics to Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department read as an elegy to England’s batting at the Optus Stadium. “But you’re in self-sabotage mode,” Swift sang during eleven days on tour in Australia earlier this year. Eerily, England has lost the Ashes in the same time period back in 2002-03.
Ben Stokes’s side has arrived at Brisbane for Thursday’s second Test, a venue which has been like a torture device for previous English invaders. Mitchell Starc is the best pink-ball bowler in the world, and the home team has won 13 out of 14 day-night Tests. The omens are not good.
The first Test broke all-time attendance records for the venue as days one and two were sold out, and day three was on the verge of maximum capacity. The Ashes are still burning hot on ratings with the second session last Saturday boasting a total TV audience of 1.05 million. That is more than a 40 per cent increase on the corresponding session against India in 2024.
The renewal of the oldest rivalry in cricket still has legs. The new-age casino kings of the Test cricket coffers, India, have provided far stiffer opposition against the Baggy Greens since their groundbreaking 2018-19 away win. When was the last time England went toe to toe with the Aussies in their own backyard for the whole nine yards? The 2010/11 victory now appears a total anomaly.
There’s just not enough edge or competitive instinct. England needed to go all Australian rules football and boot their opponents into touch when 100 ahead with nine wickets down. Instead, Brendon McCullum’s team saw boundaries and wanted to play to the audience. The same thing happened at Lord’s in 2023 when Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, and Ben Duckett hit shots up in the air. Sometimes, it’s good to play the safe numbers rather than try to rock the crowd every over. From there, the 2023 Ashes was virtually lost in England.
There will be no hiding place if Stokes and McCullum’s plans to snub the Prime Minister’s XI pink-ball game show them up again. The squad is conducting extra training at Allan Border Field and the Gabba itself. The acid spit of Bazball as a defence mechanism is becoming problematic. This was supposed to be a style of cricket that widened Test cricket’s appeal. It worked a treat during the summer, but the bravado has put up no entry signs around its inner circle after things crashed and burned in Western Australia.
India has already been and gone in a rain-affected white-ball series, but the interest was huge as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma walked out to say farewell to Australian crowds at a sold-out Sydney Cricket Ground. The venue sounded more like a home fixture for the veterans. Australia has no time for England victories, but they like a team that can swing some punches.
PERTH, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 22: Mitchell Starc (L) of Australia reacts after catching Zak Crawley during day two of the First 2025/26 Ashes Series Test Match between Australia and England at Perth Stadium on November 22, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)
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Kohli’s parting shot on retiring from the red-ball game was that Test cricket was “five levels” above the IPL. The Ashes 2025 has the chance to revive the battle between the Big Three after India were sunk at home for the second series in a row against South Africa. If Stokes and his cavaliers fall on their swords against Starc and Scott Boland in Brisbane, then what is left other than the last rites before Christmas? Boxing Day tickets at the MCG still sold out in record time.
The Australian public will keep watching, no matter how bad the balance sheet is for the English. It’s 14 defeats from the last 16 now in enemy territory.
Australia was one wicket away from making it a total whitewash in 2017-18, but the total attendance was over 867,000 across all five Tests, the second-largest in Ashes history. Although the commercial side doesn’t need a close contest, there has to be something more than a repeat of past capitulations for the true sports fan and the aura of the urn.
“Every single thing to come has turned into ashes,” Swift sings on Bigger Than The Whole Sky. Cricket Australia’s website says that tickets for days one to three at the Gabba are “exhausted”. The Ashes will be too if England gets rolled.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timellis/2025/11/30/ashes-tickets-sold-like-taylor-swift-but-england-cant-be-support-act/
