The Ashes Preview

Test Match Special

BBC

Cricket, Sports News, News, Sports

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Steve Crossman is joined by Mark Ramprakash, Jack Leach and Durham's Australian coach Ryan Campbell to look ahead to the opening Test of the Ashes series that begins on Friday in Perth. They will also be joined by Australian journalist Geoff Lemon.

They discuss the challenges of touring in Australia, the importance of the opening ball of the series, as well as the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two sides including; the leadership, spinners, pace attacks, and the Aussie top order.

Timecodes: 00:03:43 - expectations of the series 00:12:30 - The importance of the first ball of the Ashes 00:18:12 - Touring Australia and the phoney war 00:23:17 - What should England expect in Perth? 00:33:53 - Ben Stokes 00:45:40 - Australia without Cummins and Hazlewood 00:58:38 - Spinners 01:15:51 - England's pace attack 01:25:20 - Australia's top order 01:30:45 - Joe Root

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:05.7	Right, start at the beginning.
0:07.7	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:09.7	Okay, hello.
0:10.6	And if you're into true crime.
0:12.3	The message was clear.
0:13.7	You might like to investigate BBC sounds.
0:16.1	Somebody must know something.
0:18.0	Because there's a caseload of award-winning podcasts.
0:20.7	Do you think this is actually going to go to trial?
0:22.8	That cast light on shady cyber criminals,
0:24.9	mysterious drownings and unsolved murders, from Bergen to Belfast.
0:29.0	I didn't know who I could trust.
0:30.8	Search, true crime on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	The only thing left to do now is Ron.
0:37.6	You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.
0:43.4	Hello there, welcome to the Test Match special podcast.
0:47.0	The weight is almost over.
0:49.5	Are you ready?
0:52.2	You've got this tiny little pot of dust that means so much more because of everything that's gone into it. Convicts versus Mother England. I guess it goes all the way back to that. Butterflies are that much more pronounced when you're playing an Ashes series. The stakes are that much higher. The Ashes is something that means a lot to cricketers from both sides.
1:11.1	It's still the ultimate.
1:12.2	And in comes Pat Cummings from the far end. He bowls to Stokes, who hammers it for four! The most extraordinary innings ever, ever he played by an Englishman. Shane Warn. Of only two or three paces, he bowls, and Gatting is taken on the pace. Bowled! Harmison comes up in bowls and Casparovic goes back and Perry's one as he caught down the left side.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 1 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.