The latest edition of Wisden has delivered a severe assessment of England’s Ashes tour of Australia, branding it a “wing-and-a-prayer” campaign that finished “feckless, reckless and legless.”
Published this Thursday, the long-running cricket almanack is unsparing in its verdict on a series defeat that it says represented “a chance so blithely spurned.” The language leaves little doubt about how strongly the publication views England’s performance across the tour.
The criticism comes against the backdrop of another busy year in Test cricket, with Wisden also giving prominent recognition to players involved in India’s recent success. The new edition has a clear Indian emphasis among its awards, while Haseeb Hameed is the only Englishman included among the five cricketers of the year.
Hameed, who captained title-winning Nottinghamshire, is joined on the list by Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj. The Indian quartet were honoured for their roles in last year’s memorable 2-2 Test series draw in England, a result that stood out as one of the defining contests of the season.
For England, the Ashes outcome in Australia is presented by Wisden as a failure of both execution and opportunity. The magazine’s language suggests not just disappointment with the result, but frustration at the manner in which the tour unravelled.
That sharp tone continues a long tradition of Wisden using its annual summaries to judge the sport’s major stories in blunt terms. In this case, the verdict on England is especially harsh, with the defeat framed as avoidable and the team’s campaign portrayed as lacking control and coherence.
By contrast, the recognition given to Indian players underlines the scale of their influence across the year’s Test cricket narrative. Gill, Pant, Jadeja and Siraj all feature after playing key parts in a hard-fought series in England that ended level at 2-2, while Hameed’s inclusion offers a domestic English presence in an otherwise India-heavy set of honours.
The latest Wisden edition therefore captures two very different themes in the game: England’s costly Ashes setback and India’s continued prominence in the Test format. One is treated as a squandered opportunity, the other as a season of notable achievement and recognition.
As ever, the annual publication’s judgments are likely to prompt discussion beyond the awards themselves, particularly given the severity of its criticism of England. But the central message is clear: the Ashes tour in Australia is viewed by Wisden as a failure of ambition and performance, and one that fell far short of what had been possible.
