After losing the first two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s, England stormed back under the leadership of Zak Crawley and the pacers to tie the Ashes 2023 at two games each. It was just the second time in Ashes history that a side came back from losing the first two Tests to either tie or win the series, the first being Australia’s 3-2 come-from-behind triumph in 1936/37 under Don Bradman.
While the Australian quicks, headed by captain Pat Cummins, had their poorest series in terms of economy rates, England broke a number of batting records thanks to their aggressive batting strategy.
Over 300 total sums in the set
In the 2023 Ashes series, an unprecedented ten batsmen scored 300 or more runs collectively. It’s tied with the seven-match 1970–71 Ashes series and the 2016–17 England tour of India, both of which included 10 batsmen who scored more than 300 runs in the series.
Plenty many sixes
Ashes 2023 set a new record for most sixes in a Test series with 74, nine more than the previous record holder. Over the course of the five games, Stokes smashed 15 sixes, breaking Kevin Pietersen’s 2005 record of 14.
Team scores and batting averages
There were a total of 19 innings in which a side scored 200 or more runs, which is tied for the most ever in a Test series.
In the third Test at Headingley, Australia scored 224 runs in their second innings, the lowest completed total of the series and the most lowest completed total in an Ashes series. After the 1982–1983 and 1993–1994 Ashes series, this was just the third time when neither side was bowled out for under 200 runs.
The 4.74 run rate that England has maintained throughout the series is the best by any side in a Test series with at least four games. In 2001, Australia won the Ashes by a score of 4 games to 1, setting a new record for most runs scored in an Ashes match.
3.93 – The total scoring rate of the two sides in the series is the highest ever in the Ashes and the fourth highest ever in a Test series with three or more games.
In comparison to England’s 171, Australia’s bowlers only managed to bowl 34 maidens during the whole series. Four of Cummins’s deliveries at Lord’s were maidens, an Australian Test record; five English bowlers achieved this feat, including twice at Lord’s and once at The Oval.
Both teams had about the same number of boundaries (346 for England and 370 for Australia) and balls per boundary (11.38 for England and 14.7 for Australia), but it’s worth noting that the tourists were largely obligated to maintain defensive fields, rendering their quicks incapable of maintaining sustained pressure on England.
Usman Khawaja and Zak Crawley
Throughout the series, Zak Crawley and Usman Khawaja were the go-to hitters for their respective teams. Crawley hit a boundary off the opening ball at Edgbaston in the 2023 Ashes, making him the first England opener to score 400+ runs at home in an Ashes series since Andrew Strauss in 2009.
As the series leading scorer, Khawaja’s 496 runs were the most by any Australian opener in England since Matthew Elliott’s 556 in 1997.
Khawaja’s 72 in the last innings at The Oval was his only noteworthy contribution in the last three Tests, and their contrasting results largely dictated the outcome of the series, which Crawley dominated in the second half of.