Ashes 2025-26: Anderson expects England to pick same side for second Test
England is unlikely to tinker with its side for the second Ashes Test against Australia starting in Brisbane next week despite being thumped in the opening match, its former fast bowler James Anderson said.
England deployed a pace heavy attack in Perth and bowled out the hosts for 132 in its first innings, with skipper Ben Stokes picking up five wickets, but it went on lose the extraordinary clash inside two days.
A Travis Head knock in the second innings took the sting out of the tourists’ bowling unit with the Australia opener scoring the only century of the match to script an eight-wicket win.
“The all-pace attack 100% worked in the first innings. We landed a few blows,” England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker Anderson said on the BBC’s Tailenders podcast.
“I think that will be in their heads and I would not be surprised at all if we went with the same side.
“I just wonder whether we lack a nuance with a bit of something different and a change of pace, whether that is a spinner or a slightly different pacer.”
Also read | ICC rates Perth pitch ‘very good’ despite a two-day finish
Australia’s pacemen tore through England’s batting order twice to set up a modest chase of 205, which it completed late on day two, and Anderson said the bowling unit became more predictable as the match progressed.
“Head knew they were bowling short, so he just sat on the back foot and hit his areas,” the 43-year-old added.
“There was no frontline spinner to just bowl four overs and change the pace of the game and make it slightly different for Head and give him something else to think about.”
England has won only three series in Australia in the last 50 years, the last in 2010-11. It has not won a single Test match Down Under since.
Published on Nov 27, 2025
