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Fleming: Where do England go from here?
SEN • November 23rd, 2025 1:00 pm
Just how significant of a result is Australia’s first Test triumph?
England found themselves in a dominant position during day two of the first Ashes Test in Perth, pulling out to a 105-run lead having lost just one wicket in their second innings.
However, the English collapsed in stunning fashion, as Ben Duckett’s outside edge would mark the first of an almighty fall, losing all of their remaining wickets at figures of 9-99.
And to make matters worse, Travis Head deployed England’s game plan to better effect than the English themselves, piling on 123 off 83 balls to decimate England's 205-run lead.
Holding such an advantage against an Australian side without both Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, it seemed a moral that the English would claim an all-important 1-0 series lead.
Now, the tourists will have to play catch-up, and as said by former Australian cricketer Damien Fleming, losing this Test could have significant ramifications on England’s mental strength entering Brisbane.
“We have got a lot of time between this Test match and the Brisbane Test,” Fleming told SEN Cricket.
“For England, where do they go from here? It was such a great chance to go 1-0 up.
“Dominated the day, dominated up until lunch today and just let it go. There’s going to be a lot of scars from this.”
As mirrored by Ben Stokes in his post-match interview, England were well and truly caught off guard against the rampaging Aussies.
“A little bit shellshocked there,” Stokes said post-match.
“That innings from Travis Head was pretty phenomenal. As you say, it’s quite raw, quite fresh at the moment, but sheesh that was some knock.
“You look at the way that the game eked out, the guys who seem to have success out there with the bat in hand are the guys who seem to be really brave and take the game on. If we were to look back on that, it’s almost … never think you’ve got enough.
“If you find yourself in a position where you’re the guy who has managed to get in, try and give yourself the best chance of going on.
“As you’ve seen, anyone who has tried to stay around there and occupy the crease with a lot of time didn’t seem to have too much success. That knock from Travis has knocked the wind out of us there.”
While the scars of the Perth loss will certainly take time to heal, Stokes and the English side will take positives out of their bowling attack, particularly citing the controlling position they put themselves in across day one.
“The way in which we bowled (on Friday) was simply phenomenal,” Stokes said.
“A lot happened on day one, 19 wickets fell! It was a good day for the bowlers, and obviously this is a very tough one to get the series going when we felt we were in control of the game when we were coming out to bowl in that fourth innings.
“We have four more games here, we’ll obviously let this sink in, it hurts extremely, but we’ve got to get our heads around and move on to Brisbane, hit the ground running there.
“We’ve got a long time before that game starts. We’ll be working hard, going away and putting all the hard graft that we always do into getting to Brisbane and coming away with a result we want there.”
The Second Test begins Thursday December 4th in Brisbane, with ball-by-ball coverage right here on SEN.
