Ashes 2025-26, Sydney Test, Day 1 review: Root, Brook make it England's day as rain cuts play short

Australia and England began their last clash of the Ashes 2025-26 at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday, January 4. England won the toss and elected to bat first.

Both the teams made one change each. England brought in Matthew Potts for the injured Gus Atkinson while the home team replaced Jhye Richardson with all-rounder Beau Webster. Australia, for the first time since 1888, did not include a specialist spinner for the SCG Test. 

The day began with a tribute to the Bondi beach terror victims and responders to the attack who prevented further loss of lives. To note, the incident had occurred on December 14, 2025 and claimed 15 lives.

England opener Ben Duckett began the proceedings on a positive note in sunny conditions. Veteran Australian quick Mitchell Starc was off the radar initially as Duckett stroked the bowler for five boundaries. But, Starc had the last laugh as the left-hand batter edged one to Alex Carey. An aggressive, promising innings (27 off 24) was cut short, giving Australia a breather.

Jacob Bethell joined Zak Crawley in the middle as both looked to take their time to settle. In fact, Bethell took 15 balls to open his account. Though Crawley was not as aggressive as one has seen him on numerous occasions he calmly added three fours to his tally before being trapped LBW by Michael Neser on 16.

Bethell did not last long as he departed for 10 in the next over, caught behind by Carey off Scott Boland. England were 57/3 in the 13th over of the innings and it looked like Ben Stokes' decision to bat first was an error of judgement.

But Joe Root and Harry Brook were determined to not let things go down that path. The duo were cautious early on in the innings, understanding that any further damage could greatly impact the total. Root played sensibly, scoring many of runs behind square on the off side initially.

Brook, who is instinctively an attacking player, scored his runs with measured strokeplay. But, when Cameron Green targeted the batter with shorter deliveries the Englishmen brought out his authoritative style. Many of the balls which went up high towards fine leg fell short agonisingly for Australia as Brook rode his luck.

The batters reached their half centuries in a similar number of balls as the partnership also breached the 100-run mark. The runs kept coming at a steady pace as the wicket seemed to have lost all the juice which had helped the Australian bowlers in the first hour.

The skies started to get greyer around the halfway mark of the day and soon after the umpires decided to go back in due to bad light. It only got darker as heavy rain and lightning made their presence felt. Play was called off at 5pm local time amid jeers from the crowd.

England finished on 211/3 as only 45 overs were possible. The partnership between Root (72*) and Brook (78*) is worth 154 runs, going at 4.81 runs per over. For Australia, all their frontline pacers picked up one wicket each with the all-rounders Green and Webster (0/11) being ineffective. In fact, Green was quite expensive as his eight overs went for 57 runs.

Play on Day 2 will start at 10am local time, half an hour earlier than scheduled time to compensate for time lost.