BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — It's the game before the games, the chatter for the Ashes.
And well-known former protagonists from Australia and England have started the verbal jousting that comes with one of the oldest sporting rivalries in the world.
Ex-Australia opening batter David Warner raised the level this week when he said the Australians were competing to win the Ashes, while England would be playing for a “moral victory” for its so-called Bazball approach to test cricket.
Warner predicted a 4-0 win for Australia — expecting the weather inevitably to play some part in a draw along the way — although suggested England could win one test if Australia skipper Pat Cummins is ruled out through injury.
Stuart Broad, a longtime pace spearhead for England, upped the ante by declaring Australia’s squad will be the worst to wear the baggy green since 2010-11.
“It’s probably the worst Australian team since 2010 when England last won, and it’s the best English team since 2010,” Broad told a BBC podcast. “It’s actually not an opinion, it’s fact.
“So those things match up to the fact it’s going to be a brilliant Ashes series.”
That assessment hit where it hurts for the Aussies, being the last series where Australia lost an Ashes match on home soil.
In fact, that was Australia's only Ashes series loss at home since it reclaimed the urn in England in 1989. And the home record since is 13 wins, two draws, no defeats in tests.
The Australians have held the Ashes since 2017, retaining the old urn with series wins at home and drawn series in England.
The 2025-26 five-test series starts Nov. 21 in Perth, Western Australia.
Broad, who was part of the squad that won here in 2010-11, and also the squads that lost here three times since, highlighted uncertainty over the composition of Australia's batting top-order, as well as the fitness concerns over Cummins as areas to exploit for England.
“When have we ever, since 2010, been discussing who is going to bat No. 1, 2, 3, 6, 8 and who is going to be the spare bowler for Australia?” Broad said. "You’re always go in there going: ‘well,the Aussies, they’re really strong. They’ve just got the same bowlers, the same team’.
In the 2010-11 series, Broad said, Australia was trying to replacing greats Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, and didn't have a front-line spinner.
“They changed the seamers all the time, and they had a bit of a mixed match of batters," Broad said. "So I don’t think anyone could argue that it’s their weakest team since 2010.”
England's stocks have been lifted with the return of paceman Jofra Archer, the return to fitness of Mark Wood and Joe Root entering the series as the No. 1 test batter in the world, albeit having never posted a century in Australia.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
FILE - Australia's captain Pat Cummins walks of the field, bowled by West Indies' Alzarri Joseph, on day three of the third Test cricket match at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan, File)
