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England won't change tack despite Ashes humiliation

The Independent

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November 23, 2025

Shell-shocked is the word you're looking for. On a morning where England came into the game ahead, on an afternoon when they had the match in their grasp, to an evening where they had lost.

- CAMERON PONSONBY AT OPTUS STADIUM, PERTH

England won't change tack despite Ashes humiliation

Two batting collapses of spectacular proportions in as many days, capitalised upon by an astonishing Travis Head century. Australia won by eight wickets, in what turned into a humiliating defeat for the touring side.

Where do you want to start? As a team, England's two innings lasted 67.3 overs. Not since 1904 have they ever been bowled out twice so quickly. As a whole, the Test was the ninth shortest in history. Perth was always meant to be fast, but not like this.

"I'm shell-shocked a little bit," captain Ben Stokes said after play. "Wide-eyed after that to see what unfolded, particularly after the first day. Our third innings with the bat and then to see what Head did... We'll let this hurt, because it does."

imageEngland haven’t won a Test match in Australia since 2011. Opportunities to do so are few and far between and now they need to win three of the remaining four if they are to take a series that Stokes and Brendon McCullum both described as the biggest of their lifetimes. When England wake up tomorrow and the adrenaline of a manic 24 hours has worn off, it will be replaced with an ache. If they fail to turn around this series, this is a day that will go down in infamy in English cricket.

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