initial test of The Ashes 2025-26 The series concluded in quick succession over two days at Perth Stadium Australia won by eight wickets EnglandDespite the brevity of the game and challenging conditions, the ICC match referee controversially gave the Perth pitch a ‘very good’ rating,
However, the Australian opener Usman Khawaja Strongly disagreeing with this assessment, he publicly and strongly criticized the unpredictable and dangerous nature of the surface on the first day. Khawaja’s comments, made at an event for his foundation, highlight the disparity between player experience and official pitch ratings.
Usman Khawaja rejects ICC’s ‘very good’ rating with strong criticism
Khawaja, speaking at an event for his Usman Khawaja Foundation, publicly condemned the Perth Stadium pitch, which he thought was at odds with the ICC’s highest possible rating. The Australian opening batsman was uncompromising in his assessment of the surface on the first day, emphasizing the undue difficulty and danger it posed to the batsmen: “Nineteen wickets and about 20 people hit on the first day, it’s a fantastic wicket – it feels really fair.” He criticized the unpredictable “up and down” bounce as the most difficult factor, explaining the difficulty for the batsmen: “You can’t really predict up and down. Up and down is the hardest – sideways is a little easier but up and down, your hands can’t hold.”
Khawaja emphasized that the conditions were so severe that they troubled the world’s top players, noting the difficulty in connecting with the ball: “He’s missing the middle of his bat too far – he’s not missing the middle of his bat. He’s getting hurt in the elbow, he’s getting hurt.” He stressed that this issue has come up repeatedly, noting that “The same thing happened in the Indian Test last year as well.” The batsman acknowledged that the pitch improved later, saying: “So the wicket on the first day (in Perth) is very good, I’m happy to say. It was last year, it was this year. They keep getting better. On the second day, the third day and then the fourth day, they start performing brilliantly.”
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England’s baseball was destroyed by Travis Head in Perth as Australia achieved their lowest Ashes Test result in 104 years.
The Ashes series began with a surprisingly brief first Test in Perth, which ended with an impressive eight-wicket victory for Australia in just two days, the shortest completed Ashes match since 1921. England, batting first, were quickly troubled by the Australian fast bowlers, who repeatedly took advantage of a pitch that offered excessive seam movement and unpredictable bounce, leading to the fall of an astonishing 19 wickets on a chaotic opening day. Although England took a lead of 40 runs in the first innings, their middle-order suffered a massive collapse in the second innings, leaving Australia with a challenging but achievable target of 205 runs in the second afternoon.
The chase turned from challenging to decisive travis headWho came to open in the absence of injured Khawaja. Head played a brutal, career-defining counter-attacking innings, Scored 123 runs in just 83 ballsReaching his century off 69 balls, the second fastest in Ashes history, completely thwarting the English attack and making a mockery of aggressive ‘baseball’ tactics. The storming performance, which saw Australia smash the target at an unprecedented run rate, secured a 1–0 lead in the five-Test series for the hosts, leaving the English camp, in the words of their captain, “stunned” and struggling to understand their rapid surrender ahead of the day-night match at the Gabba.
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