History of the Ashes Test Series
Cricket is a sport steeped in stats, records and folklore – and there is no Test series with a richer history than the Ashes.
England and Australia have clashed over a tiny urn for more than 140 years in a rivalry that encompasses 73 Ashes series.
Each series writes a new chapter in Ashes history and the 2025/26 showdown in Australia will be no different.
Five Test matches promise up to 25 days of engrossing sport – and cricket betting fans can get in on the action, too.
This is the greatest international Test series on the planet. But what are the Ashes all about? Read on as BetMGM UK explains all you need to know about the Ashes series history.
What are the Ashes in Cricket?
The Ashes is a Test cricket series of Test cricket matches played between England and Australia. These days the series lasts for five matches, each of which can take five days to complete.
The teams compete to win the Ashes Urn – cricket fans the world over know about the urn but few have held it because it's so delicate.
The Ashes history goes back more than a century to 1882, when England and Australia played a three-Test series Down Under. England won the series 2-1 but it wasn’t the first time these two nations had faced off in a Test match.
In fact, the rivalry began in 1877 in Melbourne when England toured Australia for the first time. The legend goes that, after Australia's 1882 win at The Oval, a newspaper wrote an obituary to English cricket, stating: "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia".
Why is the Ashes Trophy an Urn?
The Ashes urn was created during England's 1882/83 tour of Australia, after England captain Ivo Bligh had pledged to "regain those ashes" following Australia's victory at The Oval earlier in the year.
It was meant to symbolise the burned ashes of some bails used in a previous series, and supposedly holds those ashes within.
England won the 1882/83 series but the urn wasn't the prize – that remained a personal gift of Bligh's. In 1929, two years after his death, his wife Florence gave the urn to Marylebone Cricket Club, and has pretty much been at Lord's ever since.
List of Ashes Series Winners
The first “official” Ashes series was played between Australia and England in 1882/83. England won the three-match Test series 2-1.
There have been more than 70 Ashes series since, with the following results:
| Years | Host | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1882–83 | Australia | England |
| 1884 | England | England |
| 1884–85 | Australia | England |
| 1886 | England | England |
| 1886–87 | Australia | England |
| 1887–88 | Australia | England |
| 1888 | England | England |
| 1890 | England | England |
| 1891–92 | Australia | Australia |
| 1893 | England | England |
| 1894–95 | Australia | England |
| 1896 | England | England |
| 1897–98 | Australia | Australia |
| 1899 | England | Australia |
| 1901–02 | Australia | Australia |
| 1902 | England | Australia |
| 1903–04 | Australia | England |
| 1905 | England | England |
| 1907–08 | Australia | Australia |
| 1909 | England | Australia |
| 1911–12 | Australia | England |
| 1912 | England | England |
| 1920–21 | Australia | Australia |
| 1921 | England | Australia |
| 1924–25 | Australia | Australia |
| 1926 | England | England |
| 1928–29 | Australia | England |
| 1930 | England | Australia |
| 1932–33 | Australia | England |
| 1934 | England | Australia |
| 1936–37 | Australia | Australia |
| 1938 | England | Drawn |
| 1946–47 | Australia | Australia |
| 1948 | England | Australia |
| 1950–51 | Australia | Australia |
| 1953 | England | England |
| 1954–55 | Australia | England |
| 1956 | England | England |
| 1958–59 | Australia | Australia |
| 1961 | England | Australia |
| 1962–63 | Australia | Drawn |
| 1964 | England | Australia |
| 1965–66 | Australia | Drawn |
| 1968 | England | Drawn |
| 1970–71 | Australia | England |
| 1972 | England | Drawn |
| 1974–75 | Australia | Australia |
| 1975 | England | Australia |
| 1977 | England | England |
| 1978–79 | Australia | England |
| 1981 | England | England |
| 1982–83 | Australia | Australia |
| 1985 | England | England |
| 1986–87 | Australia | England |
| 1989 | England | Australia |
| 1990–91 | Australia | Australia |
| 1993 | England | Australia |
| 1994–95 | Australia | Australia |
| 1997 | England | Australia |
| 1998–99 | Australia | Australia |
| 2001 | England | Australia |
| 2002–03 | Australia | Australia |
| 2005 | England | England |
| 2006–07 | Australia | Australia |
| 2009 | England | England |
| 2010–11 | Australia | England |
| 2013 | England | England |
| 2013-14 | Australia | Australia |
| 2015 | England | England |
| 2017-18 | Australia | Australia |
| 2019 | England | Drawn |
| 2021-22 | Australia | Australia |
| 2023 | England | Drawn |
Total Number of Ashes Series Wins Per Team
It's fair to say Australia have enjoyed the greater success in recent Ashes series. Their dominance began in the 1990s and England have struggled to deliver consistent series wins home and away since then.
Saying that, England's historic record in the Ashes means the overall split is fairly even. From 73 Test series*, Australia have only won two more Tests than England. Remarkably, four of the Ashes' seven draws occurred between 1962 and 1972.
Below is the current total number of wins per team in Ashes series history:
| Played | Australia Wins | England Wins | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| 73 | 34 (46.6%) | 32 (43.8%) | 7 (9.6%) |
*Up to, but not including, the 2025/26 Ashes series
When is the Next Ashes Series Taking Place?
The next Ashes series takes place in Australia between November 2025 and January 2026. The five-match series opens at the Optus Stadium in Perth, which is hosting an Ashes series for the first time.
The Gabba in Brisbane usually hosts the Ashes opener but will this time stage the second Test as a day/night match.
Adelaide hosts the third Test before a five-day break for Christmas, with the traditional Boxing Day Test taking place at the MCG in Melbourne.
The series wraps up in Sydney in early January, where England will hope to still be in contention for an Ashes victory.
- First Test, Optus Stadium in Perth: 21-25 November 2025
- Second Test, Gabba in Brisbane: 4-8 December 2025
- Third Test, Adelaide Oval in Adelaide: 17-21 December 2025
- Fourth Test, MCG in Melbourne: 26-30 December 2025
- Fifth Test, SCG in Sydney: 4-8 January 2026
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When are the Ashes Next in England?
England will next host the Ashes in the summer of 2027. While the fixtures haven't yet been confirmed, the series is likely to begin in June and be over by July, in order to accommodate short-form domestic cricket in August.
The five Ashes 2027 venues are as follows:
- The Ageas Bowl (Southampton)
- Edgbaston (Birmingham)
- Lord's (London)
- The Oval (London)
- Trent Bridge (Nottingham)
Series organisers are yet to confirm the Test dates and order of the host venues.
Fun Ashes Series Facts and Figures
England and Australia have been competing in the Ashes for more than 140 years. In a sport like cricket, that means there’s plenty of facts and stats that have accumulated over the decades.
Here are some of the most interesting (and weird) facts about the Ashes.**
The Ashes in Numbers
- Australia have won 34 Ashes series, compared to England’s 32. There have only been seven drawn series in 73 previous clashes.
- Australia have also won more overall Ashes Tests (142) compared to England (110). There have been 93 drawn Tests.
- England have won just 56 of 172 Tests played in Australia, and haven’t claimed a Test victory Down Under since the successful tour of 2010/11.
- England hold the record for the highest innings total in an Ashes match, when they declared on 903/7 in 1938. Australia boast the next-six highest totals (from 729/6d in 1930 to 659/8d in 1946).
- England's 68 all out – recorded in Melbourne during the last time they toured Australia in 2021 – was the third-lowest total in an Ashes match since 1948.
- The most balls delivered in Ashes history came in the 1979 series in England, where 7,920 balls were bowled over five Tests – an average of 1584 per Test.
Ashes Player Records
- Don Bradman holds the record for the most runs scored in Ashes Tests, at a career total of 5,028 – an average of 89.78.
- However, Leonard Hutton boasts the highest knock in Ashes history, with 364 scored in a single innings against Australia in 1938 – 30 runs more than Bradman’s highest Ashes score.
- Shane Warne boasts the most wickets in Ashes history, with 195 from 36 matches. He averaged a wicket every 23.25 runs.
- Steve Smith boasts the second-most centuries in Ashes history (12), behind only Bradman (19). David Gower is the only post-War England player to achieve more than eight Ashes centuries.
- There have only been 15 Ashes partnerships to yield 300+ runs in a Test, of which only three have come since 2010. Amazingly, Jonathan Trott and Alistair Cook's 329 partnership in Brisbane in 2010 was almost matched by Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin's 307-run partnership in the same Test.
What Happened Last Time?
- England and Australia drew the second Ashes series in three encounters in 2023.
- England's 4.74 run rate in the 2023 Ashes series was the second-fastest for a team competing in a three-Test series or more in history.
- Four of the five matches across the 2023 Ashes series were settled by margins of fewer than 50 runs, or by fewer than four wickets.
- There were 13 century partnerships during the last Ashes series.
- Zak Crawley reached 20+ innings seven times during the 2023 Ashes series – on par with Australia's David Warner.
- Crawley hit a century (102) via fours and sizes alone during the Old Trafford Test in 2023.
- Mitchell Starc took a series-high 27 wickets in 2023 at a rate of 27.08.
- Usman Khawaja knocked 496 in the last Ashes series – 16 more than England’s top run scorer Zak Crawley and 84 ahead of Joe Root.
- Steve Smith and Joe Root each made a series-high 11 catches during the 2023 Ashes.
** All facts correct before the 2025/26 Ashes series
