So the 2025-26 Ashes is in the books and we can all agree it was an immense disappointment. Not only did England blow a great opportunity to reclaim the urn but a supposedly titanic battle produced a damp squib.
But how does the series compare to other Ashes of the past 25 years? (Spoiler: not great.)
We’ve ranked every Ashes series of the 21st century, sifting through numerous Australian thrashings and the occasional English triumph.
Please note, these are ranked as sporting contests rather than English performance – otherwise it would make for a rather obvious list. Number one would be the same regardless. Number two, not so much.
Enjoy this trip down memory lane; a lane filled with stinging nettles and dog poop if you're an England supporter.
2021-22: Australia win 4-0
The more I read about this tour – the bubbles, the quarantines, the utter Covid-induced misery of it all – the more I think Stuart Broad has a point. Five brutally one-sided Tests, one of which England somehow scraped a draw, are a footnote to a series whose only real legacy is being the grimy petri dish from which Bazball would emerge. And I suppose Rory Burns getting bowled first ball. That was definitely a moment.
2017-18: Australia win 4-0
England’s slim chances were extinguished not on the decks of Perth but a kerb in Bristol when Ben Stokes lamped an alleged homophobe outside a nightclub. He was later acquitted of affray and I cannot be the only person whose respect for Stokes grew after reading the testimony of the couple he was defending. However he missed the tour and four subsequent shellackings – Australia’s narrowest victory margin was 120 runs – plus an infamous Boxing Day bore draw on an MCG road.
(Incidentally, I attended that match and still treasure memories of days two and three, Alastair Cook racking up 244 as we partied in the sun. Everyone else called it a travesty and the MCG groundstaff subsequently turned the pitch into a roulette wheel – the last two Ashes Tests have lasted less than five days combined.)
2024-25: Australia win 4-1
The most disappointing series I can recall and arguably a worse result than the two whitewashes. An historic opportunity betrayed by shoddy preparation and lackadaisical mentality. (No fielding coach? Come on!) It is easy to be wise after the event but there were no shortage of voices questioning the lack of warm-up matches, Ollie Pope at 3 and the Shoaib Bashir experiment.
The cricket was fairly crap, too: Perth and Melbourne were essentially back-to-back ODIs, and the urn was decided after 11 days. All reinforcing the sense that these were two fairly average teams, blessed with a couple of great players. Unsurprisingly, the team who took the contest seriously ended up smashing the team who tried to wing it. The two England teams directly below on this list would've fared far better.
2001: Australia win 4-1
An all-time great Australian team delivered one of the all-time humpings. Not so much men against boys as slingshots versus Panzer tanks. Interesting that Shane, Ricky and the lads warmed up with three first-class matches before winning the first Test by an innings. They played another three across the series. England could console themselves with one of the all-time great innings: Mark Butcher’s 173* to win the fourth Test. Plus the retrospective knowledge that Australia haven’t won an away Ashes since – which is one of those stats that feels wrong, somehow.
2002-03: Australia win 4-1
An all-time great Australian team delivered one of the all-time humpings (again). England’s four warm-up matches counted for little when Nasser Hussein chose to have a bowl in Brisbane and the Aussies duly scored 492. In fairness to Nasser, you suspect it had minimal impact on the result. England were smashed in four Tests before improbably winning the fifth by 225 runs. Opener Michael Vaughan scored three big centuries, offering hope for a future that would arrive sooner than anyone expected.
2013: England win 3-0
Honestly, it’s not bias to only now include an English win; more a compliment to Australia that no victory over them can be considered routine. This one came the closest, and even then the scoreline flattered England, who won the first Test by 14 runs and were saved by weather in two others. Warning signs this team was closer to the edge than they realised.
The series has vanished from collective consciousness due to ridiculous scheduling that made it the first leg of a back-to-back double header (something to do with World Cup cycles). It still contributed a piece of Ashes folklore when Stuart Broad refused to walk, even if the moment is far more famous than the context. Justice for Ian Bell and his three centuries! (All match winners, incidentally.)
2013-14: Australia win 5-0
And here’s leg two. Not quite as fruitful from an English perspective, and far less competitive, but historical context gives it the edge. Mitchell Johnson and his mustache marmalised a previously formidable batting line-up, Graeme Swann retired mid-series and England’s most successful team in decades duly disintegrated in the Antipodean sun.
This marked the start of an ongoing cycle where series in England are close and series in Australia are, well, less close. There were three English debutants in the final Test alone: Gary Ballance, Scott Borthwick and Boyd Rankin for the pub quiz compilers. (Borthwick never played again.) Another debutant appeared earlier in the series; it’s fair to say Ben Stokes has enjoyed a more successful career.
2006-07: Australia win 5-0
A brutal series still produced a number of iconic moments: Steve Harmison bowling to second slip, Adam Gilchrist smashing a 57-ball century, the final day of Adelaide that may well clear a crowded field as England’s most traumatic Test match defeat. (And Shane Warne’s greatest triumph, another crowded field. God that man was a hero.)
With Michael Vaughan injured, Duncan Fletcher overlooked the obvious captaincy replacement Andrew Strauss in favour of Andrew Flintoff. “You’ll thank me for this one day,” Fletcher told Strauss, a nice rallying call from the coach. Masterful long-term management or craven surrender? You decide. Despite the scoreline, Chris Read and Sajid Mahmood were the only England players to never play Test cricket again. Australia bade farewell to Warne and Glenn McGrath, two of the greatest to ever do it.
2015: England win 3-2
Far, far less dramatic than the scoreline suggests. None of the Tests were close, and the final match was a dead rubber that Australia won by an innings. You could make a convincing argument that 2013 was more competitive, if only anyone could remember it actually happened.
Nonetheless this series is the first we’ve encountered in which both sides won a live Test, trading the first two before England claimed the third. A potentially titanic fourth was decided by lunchtime on day one, Stuart Broad taking eight wickets as Australia scored 60. England haven’t won the Ashes since. Another one of those stats that sound wrong: this the only Ashes win of Ben Stokes's career. Ian Bell, by comparison, won five.
2011-12: England win 3-1
Perhaps lower than you might expect but from an unbiased perspective, the one-sided nature of the contest counts against it. From a biased perspective, it was absolutely fantastic. Arguably England’s finest team of the century came up against Australia’s weakest – innings victory begat innings victory, Cook scored roughly a million runs. It wasn’t really a ‘moments’ series, more a remorseless grinding into the dirt.
Weird to think it in the balance when Australia won the third Test by a hefty 267 runs. It remained in the balance until the first morning of Melbourne and then titled very fast indeed. There have been several more dramatic series but in terms of English dominance, this remains the pinnacle, their only away Ashes win across 40 years, a solitary peak projecting from an ever-widening sea of shit.
2009: England win 2-1
A tricky one to place. Gains massive points for being the only Ashes in 60 years where the series was tied going into the final match, ensuring all three results were possible. Indeed it’s one of only two series in decades where the Ashes hadn’t been decided by the final match. No dead rubbers here. The opener at Cardiff was a bonafide classic, an heroic rearguard effort by England securing an unlikely draw back when draws were considered acceptable. It was the Ashes swansong for a number of greats – Flintoff, Harmison, Pointing, Lee – and also the coming out party of an England team who would dominate world cricket for the next four years.
However, Cardiff aside, the matches weren’t great, a rainy draw in the third Test sandwiched by comprehensive wins for each side. The grand finale was also a damp squib from a competitive standpoint, Stuart Broad ripping through the Australia top order to ensure England had essentially reclaimed the urn by tea on day two. (A trick he would repeat.) I initially placed this series third but writing its entry convinced me to drop it below 2019. Fun in the moment but faded in memory.
2019: 2-2 draw
“Cut away, cut away for four!” Has as its centrepiece perhaps the greatest-ever Test match, graced by perhaps the greatest-ever innings. (I said perhaps!) For this writer, Ben Stokes 135* at Headingley is not only peak cricket but peak sport. England were bowled out for 67 on their first go! There’s also Jofra Archer’s spell to Steve Smith at Lord’s, a ferocious showdown that should be celebrated less for the former’s speed than the latter’s bravery. Even for a blueblooded Pom, watching a concussed Smith march back to the middle is pretty damn inspirational.
It was Smith’s Ashes, 774 runs at an average of 110.57; Cook scored 766 at 127.66 in 2010-11 by way of comparison. Let’s be honest, if he hadn’t missed Headingley, England almost certainly lose the series. Thanks to Smith’s returning double-century at Trent Bridge, Australia retained the urn for the first time in a generation but couldn’t complete the job at the Oval, which looks a bigger missed opportunity in hindsight. However it was very thoughtful of them: those Headingley YouTube highlights wouldn’t hit quite as nicely had England lost the series 3-1.
2023: 2-2 draw
Cricket is a funny old sport. In 2019, England were disappointed with a 2-2 draw in a series they should have lost. Four years later, they celebrated the exact same result in a series they should have really won. Still, what a blast: pure vibes, a montage of iconic moments. The first-ball boundary, the first-day declaration, the stumping, the Long Room, the run chase, the bails trick. The bucket hats. The rain. Oh god, the rain.
Yep, England’s most dominant display of the series was ultimately the most disappointing as the Manchester weather deprived them of a near-certain victory, and the generational prospect of a 2-2 decider that risked producing a genuine national event. Instead Australia retained the urn with a match to spare (again) and lost at the Oval (again). Old Trafford, comfortably the most one-sided match, yielded the only draw: the other four were all settled by fewer than four wickets or 50 runs. Honestly, if it wasn’t for that damned rain this might take top spot.
2005: England win 2-1
Obviously. I won’t dwell on the cricket; you know all the stories. Over the past two decades, the 2005 Ashes has acquired a mythic quality but also a tragic one. The XI who started the first four matches never played together again. Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick never played another Ashes, Simon Jones another Test. The brave new dawn was actually a sunset.
Of far greater consequence was the decision to seal Test cricket behind a paywall at the height of its popularity. Yes, Sky has contributed millions to the game but how many millions of potential fans have been lost? Now isn’t the place to rehash old arguments – and plenty argue in favour of Sky – but there’s no doubt that golden summer marked the end of something. We’ve never recaptured it since.
