By the time England return to Australia for their next Ashes tour in 2029, it will have been almost 50 years since the last truly competitive bout on these shores.

In 1982-83, an England side led by Bob Willis held the Ashes after Ian Botham’s extraordinary performances in the UK in 1981, and managed to keep their defence of the urn alive until the final day of the final Test in Sydney, where a draw was enough for the hosts to prevail 2-1.

England at the moment of their famous three-run MCG Test win in 1982. Credit: Getty Images

Like the 2025-26 edition, that series was marked by Australian injuries – Terry Alderman and Dennis Lillee to name two – but also English missteps. Willis, who died in 2019, fatefully sent Australia in to bat at the Adelaide Oval, and paid for it with one of the two defeats that handed the series to Greg Chappell’s team.

But in Melbourne, a fast-moving (for the time) Test match ended with the theatre of a last-wicket stand between Allan Border and Jeff Thomson, who were only parted with four runs left to get after Chris Tavare parried a slips chance into the exultant hands of Geoff Miller.

These moments and memories have grown more poignant with every series since. The destiny of the Ashes has been known well before the final game on every subsequent tour, even when England won in 1986-87 and 2010-11.

That’s a problem for Cricket Australia, which hyped this tour as the ultimate in cricket’s contests, in parallel with the Bazball bubble that gave so many English supporters false hope of a win here. It’s true that this series has still........

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