The Ashes 2025-26: Stuart Broad urges England to unleash full-strength pace attack for first Test in Perth

Stuart Broad has urged England not to repeat the mistake they made with him during the 2021 Ashes tour and to go all out for the first Test in Perth with a full-strength bowling line-up.

The Channel Seven commentator and Australia’s long-time arch-enemy, who retired at the end of the 2023 Ashes, said the visitors should not look to manage their bowling squad and must play both their pace spearheads Jofra Archer and Mark Wood in all five Tests.

During the last Ashes tour, Broad was rested from the opening Test at the Gabba, which they lost by nine wickets — the beginning of a disastrous campaign that ended in a 4-0 series defeat.

Despite concerns over Wood, who is 35-years-old, and Archer, who has only played only two Tests since 2021, Broad said with the second Test at the Gabba being a day-night match, England needed to win the first Test as Australia were nearly impossible to beat in pink-ball games.

Australia has only lost one of the 13 day-night Tests they’ve played since their first pink-ball match in 2015, making English success in Perth that much more important.

England are chasing their first Ashes series win since 2015 and their first series win Down Under since 2011.

“Wood, Archer, Atkinson, Bashir, Stokes. Go all out for the ‘W’ there — have to start well and it’s (Perth) a bowler-friendly pitch,” Broad said on social media.

He then continued to prosecute his argument on a podcast.

“There’s no point going there with the mindset, ‘Oh keep someone fit for Melbourne.’ You have to go and get a result at Perth first,” Broad told For The Love Of The Game.

“You have to get a draw or a win — preferably a win — because I think it’s very difficult to beat the Aussies in the pink-ball game, which is Test match two at the Gabba.

“I think Australia win the Gabba Test, so you have to go and win the first Test. Go all out with your best attack: Wood, Archer, Atkinson, Bashir, Stokes.

“Then I would definitely play Josh Tongue in the pink-ball game because he bowls that fuller length that’s harder to pick under lights.

“I would go with that attack … get Mark Wood fit because there is a little bit of doubt about how the Aussies cope with extreme pace.”

Broad, who played 40 Ashes Tests over his 167-Test career and holds the record for the most wickets taken against Australia (153), said England’s second-tier bowlers — Tongue and Brydon Carse — could be used later in the series, but Wood and Archer both had to play in Perth on November 21.

The comments come after Broad said earlier this month that Australia would be fielding its weakest Ashes side since 2010.

Former Aussie quick Brett Lee agreed with Broad that England should hold nothing back for the first Test.

“If England are going to win, they’ve got to play Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. Mark Wood to me holds the key. It’s a big key that he’s holding, a big opportunity. If Mark Wood is fully fit, unleash the dogs. Let him out. Let him out first Test. Try to decimate the top order of Australia,” Lee told News Corp.

“Whether or not he gets a heap of wickets, it doesn’t matter. If he’s bowling 150km/h, no one likes facing 150km/h. They might say they do, but they don’t.

“Whoever wins the first Test, I believe, will win the series. So England’s best chance is to go out and really put the pressure on Australia.”

WA cricket great amd former Aussie Test skipper Kim Hughes told The West on Thursday that England’s bowlers’ lack of experience in Australia would haunt them during the series.

England will play only one practice match in Australia before the first Test — against England Lions at Lilac Hill — and Hughes expressed concern about how star batters Joe Root (still yet to score a Test century in Australia), Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, and Ben Duckett would fare.

“Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are very exciting, but they need some real good, tough conditioning — and you don’t get it in practice matches, you get it in hard, tough preparation,” Hughes said.

“Certainly bowling in Perth, which will be one of the quickest wickets in the world, you won’t be playing Bazball too much — not unless you want to get rissoled — because you can’t drive the ball on the up, you’ve got to get a real half-volley.

“It’s not so much how well you bowl downwind, it’s how well you bowl up into the wind.

“I know the wind at Optus Stadium is not the same as at the WACA, but when you have a look at the English bowlers, I’m not too sure who they’ve got to bowl up into the wind.

“That’s where blokes like Scott Boland, particularly, will be very handy indeed — and Nathan Lyon especially.”

The war of words between former greats of both countries has intensified with a month to go until the first ball is bowled at Optus Stadium, with ex-English coach David Lloyd quipping England would win the series 5–0 this week.

“I hate predictions, I can’t be doing with them. I’m gonna turn into Glenn McGrath — it’s going to be 5–0 England,” Lloyd declared on air.

“I was told that’s never ever been done.”

Former Australian coach Justin Langer said Lloyd’s comments were all part of the fun and pageantry of the pre-series build-up.

“One of the great and funniest people I have met in the game — a wry smile came over my face when I saw his prediction,” The West Australian and The Nightly columnist said.

“The drama and narrative are reflective of the lead-up to all Ashes series. I love it, but I take all predictions with a grain of salt and a bucket load of perspective. David’s is no different.”

Fast bowling great Mitchell Johnson, also a columnist for The Sunday Times, The West Australian and The Nightly, played down Lloyd’s comments.

“Their best result down here was in 1928–29 when they won 4–1 with Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hammond, Larwood and Jardine,” Johnson said.

“I’m not seeing that calibre in this squad, so let’s call it what it is: standard pre-Ashes banter.”

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