The Ashes 2nd Test Review
Australia have won the second Ashes Test in Brisbane by eight wickets and the scoreline almost flatters England. Sixty-five was never a target. It was an administrative task. Steve Smith finished it with a six, because he always does, and the Gabba crowd barely had time to settle before the series tilted decisively Australia’s way.
This was the pink-ball Test everyone circles on the calendar. Night sessions. Movement. Noise. The one that exposes anything loose in your technique or your thinking. England arrived talking about intent, about staying true to their method, about lessons learned in Perth. They left Brisbane having been beaten inside four days by an Australian side missing Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. That matters.
The tone was set before a ball was bowled. Usman Khawaja’s back spasms, the golf swing, the cameras, the Perth pitch comments. The whole saga felt like a distraction waiting to happen. Khawaja did not make it to Brisbane, Australia moved on immediately, and England were left facing a team that did not blink once the noise stopped.
England’s first innings had one undeniable positive. Joe Root was outstanding. His 138 not out was controlled, patient and authoritative, finally a century in Australia that felt inevitable rather than overdue. Under lights, with the pink ball doing its thing, Root looked like the only player in the game operating on the correct timeline. The problem was that he was alone. Around him came the familiar collapses, loose shots, and sudden bursts of optimism followed by abrupt reality. Bazball remained committed. The scoreboard remained unmoved.
Mitchell Starc turned the match into something personal. Six wickets with the pink ball on day one, movement both ways, full, fast and relentless. Then, when England finally thought they might get off the field, he came back and scored 77 from number nine. That is where this Test was lost. Not in the final chase. Not even in the second-innings collapse. England let Australia make 511. They bowled short, wide and without discipline, and by the time the innings ended the match had already slipped out of reach.
Australia’s top order did not need to do anything extraordinary. Jake Weatherald set the platform, Smith and Labuschagne added control, nobody panicked. The pressure never arrived. Then the tail took over and England were left staring at a 177-run deficit that felt far heavier than the number suggested.
England tried, briefly, to reframe the contest in the second innings. Ben Stokes and Will Jacks dug in, played straight, resisted the urge to manufacture chaos. For a moment it felt like England might actually make Australia work for it. Then Michael Neser happened. Picked on his home ground, questioned immediately, he responded with five for 42 and dismantled the last remaining resistance. Selection debates evaporated. The Test ended there.
The chase was mercy. England took two wickets, Archer finally found some venom, Smith responded like a man insulted by the suggestion of danger, and it was done. The only moment of genuine heat came in that brief Smith-Archer exchange, which only underlined how comfortable Australia had been for the rest of the match.
At 2-0, the series is not over, but it has a shape now. England are caught between identities. When they attack, they are accused of arrogance. When they dig in, they are already behind the game. Brisbane, under lights, with a pink ball, punished every lack of discipline and every soft option. Australia were not spectacular. They were simply ruthless, organised and patient enough to wait for England to undo themselves.
That is the Ashes in Australia. You do not need to be brave. You need to be precise. England were neither.
