England are banking on their young fast bowlers, but can they pit raw speed against Australia’s experienced attack?
Matt Roller15-Nov-2025First it was Stuart Broad. Then it was James Anderson. And now it is Chris Woakes. Between those three international retirements, England have lost exactly 1500 wickets worth of Test match experience since the 2023 Ashes; the septet of fast bowlers that they have taken to Australia for the 2025-26 series have barely a third of that figure (566) between them.It is England’s first Ashes tour without Anderson in their ranks since the 2002-03 series – before Jacob Bethell was even born – and their first without Broad since 2006-07. Ben Stokes accounts for more than half of the 205 Test caps shared between the seven seamers on this tour; Jofra Archer, who has played 15 Tests in six years, is their third most-capped quick.It is a clear contrast to Australia, who will rely on a trio who can boast over 1000 Test wickets between them – but whose bodies are finally showing signs of age. They will both hope to play roles later in the series but Pat Cummins (309 wickets) and Josh Hazlewood (295) are both out of Friday’s first Test, leaving Mitchell Starc (402) as the spearhead.Related
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But England’s hope is that the quality and depth of their attack will trump experience. It was only four years ago that they sent seven seamers to Australia with 1547 Test wickets between them and were thrashed 4-0; since then, both Aamer Jamal (18 wickets at 20.44) and Shamar Joseph (13 wickets at 17.30) have led touring attacks in Australia in their maiden Test series.The last time England won in Australia, in 2010-11, only Anderson and Broad among their six seamers had even ten previous Test caps before the start of the series. Yet their rookies thrived: Chris Tremlett took 17 wickets in three Tests after Broad went home injured, while Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn shared 25 between them across five.
The key ingredient in the 2025-26 attack – which has so often been absent in previous England squads to tour Australia – is pace. Six of their seven seamers have been clocked above 90mph/145kph in Test cricket – Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Stokes, Josh Tongue and Mark Wood. Matthew Potts, the lone exception, is no slouch himself.”It is probably one of the quickest attacks we’ve sent out there, if not the quickest,” says Neil Killeen, who has played a key role in their development as the ECB’s elite pace-bowling coach. The make-up of the attack is the result of a deliberate attempt by Rob Key, England’s managing director, to reprogram attitudes towards fast bowling across the English system. “It’s not like we are going to go there with the same formula and expect different results,” said Joe Root, who captained England to 4-0 defeats in their last two Ashes tours.Key has made the regeneration of England’s pace attack his priority in the past 18 months. “I don’t care how many wickets you take,” he told the in a deliberately provocative interview, shortly before moving Anderson on. “I want to know how hard you are running in, how hard you are hitting the pitch, and are you able to sustain pace at 85-88mph?”He has unashamedly taken inspiration from Australia, and described their ability to keep Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood fresh and fit across formats for so long as “the holy grail” earlier this year. Mark Wood, England’s fastest bowler ever, sees things similarly: “We’ve tried to change from the norm of England… to Australia’s vision of fast bowling,” he told the .There go our heroes: that’s 1500 Test wickets walking off into the sunset together•ECB via Getty ImagesBut the start of the transition can be traced back to February 2022, immediately after England’s 4-0 defeat in the 2021-22 Ashes. Andrew Strauss, as interim director of cricket, left both Broad and Anderson out in order to give Woakes and Wood opportunities to lead the attack, while Matt Fisher and Saqib Mahmood both made their Test debuts.It was a brave, controversial call with significant unintended consequences. England toiled hard in high-scoring draws in the first two Tests against West Indies and were then bundled out by Kyle Mayers in the third. A 1-0 series defeat – leaving England with one win in their last 17 Tests – made Root’s position as captain untenable, prompting a complete overhaul in leadership.Key, Stokes and Brendon McCullum were appointed to the three most influential roles in English cricket, and have since overseen the development of a fast-bowling attack that looks decidedly un-English. Broad and Anderson both returned in the short term, but England made a point of growing their fast-bowling depth right from the start of the new regime.Potts debuted in the first “Bazball” series, against New Zealand in June 2022, and three further fast bowlers in the Ashes squad have emerged since – Tongue, Atkinson and Carse. All four share similar attributes: they are tall, quick right-arm bowlers who rely on seam movement more than swing, and have formed strong relationships off the field.They reflected on their rise last month while training at England’s performance centre in Loughborough. “We said to each other: it’s quite nice that we’re all in a similar mould,” Carse said. “It’s quite nice to have good people and good mates away from the game who you are representing your country with, and to go to an away Ashes all together is pretty exciting.”Rookie monster: Tongue is England’s top wicket-taker so far this year, but all of his 19 wickets have come at home•Getty ImagesIt has vindicated the decision to usher Anderson into retirement, which was made explicitly with this series in mind: “Giving people game time now will hopefully put us in a strong position to go to Australia and win the urn back,” Stokes explained last July. It was an unpopular call, but the right one: for all Anderson’s brilliance, it was unthinkable that he could lead the attack at 43.He stayed around the team for the next six months as a bowling coach, passing on a lifetime of knowledge to the next generation, but has since made way. Not that Anderson is fully sold on the group that has replaced him: “I don’t see a leader of the attack,” he said on his podcast after England named their squad. “There’s not that experience there.”Key has also launched the ECB’s “pace project”, working with performance director Ed Barney, player identification lead David Court, and Killeen. Internal research suggests a clear correlation between pace and success at Test level, and England have attempted to fast-track their best prospects via the Lions programme.Sonny Baker has been handed a central contract for 2025-26 after 43 senior appearances, while Eddie Jack, Tom Lawes, Josh Hull and Mitchell Stanley have all won development deals. “It’s not about trying to make everybody 90mph bowlers,” Killeen says. “[But] we want quick bowlers who can produce lateral movement, who can create bounce, and who have accuracy.”Pace is not the only weapon that England have available to them. Archer’s potency against left-handers is well established, and Australia are likely to field five in their top eight. Atkinson’s lateral movement makes him difficult to leave alone, while Carse is a rare English bowler who feels more comfortable using the Kookaburra ball than the Dukes.Stokes has rarely bowled better than he did against India, after using an injury layoff to work on his alignment at the crease. Tongue’s beyond-perpendicular action makes him awkward to face, and he has taken a wicket every 44.1 balls in his first six Tests. Wood is a skilled exponent of reverse swing, and Potts is England’s most accurate seamer.Matthew Potts is the closest England have to a traditional English seamer in the Ashes squad•PA Images/GettyYet there is a nagging suspicion that England might be late to the party. Australian conditions have changed in recent seasons, with “curators” leaving more grass on pitches and the pace of play accelerating dramatically: on average, seamers have taken a wicket every 47 balls across the last four Test summers, compared to one every 61 balls in the previous four.Where England will turn if confronted with a green top is unclear. Despite Woakes’ record in Australia (16 wickets at 51.68), he might well have come into the picture had a shoulder injury not hastened his retirement, while Sam Cook’s unconvincing performance against Zimbabwe on debut leaves Potts as the closest thing to a traditional English seamer in the squad.It is a hole that really ought to have been filled by Ollie Robinson, a man with 76 Test wickets at 22.92, but he has slipped so far down the pecking order that he was not even in the conversation for selection after England lost patience with his attitude and fitness. His presence in Australia, playing grade cricket in Sydney, is a timely reminder of what might have been.But the question on which the series will hinge is how often England will have Archer, Stokes and Wood available to them. All three have struggled badly with injuries: Archer has played two Tests since February 2021; Wood has not bowled competitively since the Champions Trophy; and Stokes has only completed one full series as an allrounder in the last three years.Wood and Archer are lethal when fit, but given their return from long injury layoffs, are unlikely to feature in all of the Ashes Tests•Getty ImagesThe optimistic reading of their limited involvement is that the ECB have managed their workloads to ensure that all three are ready to hit the ground running in what McCullum has labelled “the biggest series of all of our lives”. In reality, there is next to no chance that all three will feature in five Tests out of five. England will need to tap into their squad depth.The tour will be a significant physical challenge. No matter the recent changes in conditions, Australia’s oppressive heat makes it a gruelling place to bowl, particularly once the Kookaburra ball has gone soft. For all their seamers’ efforts against India this summer, England ultimately ran out of steam at The Oval, in marked contrast to the irrepressible Mohammed Siraj.And unlike their opponents, England do not have a world-class spinner they can rely on. Australia have lingering injury doubts heading into the first Test but know that Nathan Lyon can settle in for long spells. Shoaib Bashir has often fulfilled a similar role, but his economy rate (3.78) reflects the frequency with which he bowls hit-me balls.It remains abundantly clear that for all of England’s improvement under Stokes and McCullum, everything will have to fall into place if they are to regain the urn. “Australia are obviously the favourites,” Wood said recently. “They’re very hard to beat in their own conditions. They’ve shown that for a number of years: we haven’t managed to win many games here at all.”It is that unavoidable truth that has prompted England to put this attack together: after 13 defeats in their last 15 Tests in Australia, there was no point opting for more of the same. Their fast-bowling “pack” features pace and potential in abundance; now, it is time for precision and performance.