As many as 32 wickets fell across two days.
The 1st Ashes 2025 Test in Perth was largely dominated by pacers, with both Australia and England bundling cheaply in the initial three innings. As the game ended inside two overs, questions arose around the pitch’s quality, with several experts and fans calling it unfit for Test cricket.
There was excessive seam movement for speedsters throughout the contest, and back-of-a-length deliveries troubled almost every batter. As many as 19 wickets fell on the opening day before another 13 on the second day, with all of them going to pacers, who bowled around 97% of the total overs in the game.
The eyebrows were mostly raised after comparisons with the Kolkata pitch, which was dominated by spinners, and the India vs South Africa Test ended in two-and-a-half days. There were reports that the curators didn’t water that surface for four days leading up to the game, and Gautam Gambhir accepted it was precisely the kind of pitch they wanted.
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However, despite all the allegations and debates, the match referee Ranjan Madugalle has submitted his report to the ICC and rated it ‘very good’. ‘Very good’ is the highest rating under the ICC’s four-tier pitch rating system, indicating that the pitch had good carry, limited seam movement, and consistent bounce.
Whenever a Test match ends early, too early in this case, and bowlers dominate the proceedings, the talks around the pitch resurface. But during the rating, the match referee examines certain aspects, not just the match’s duration.
In the Perth Test’s case, Madugalle must have noted down how poor the batting was from both teams for most of the game, and even Travis Head was one false shot away from getting out in the final innings. The pitch wasn’t completely unplayable and just had natural characteristics of Perth pitch: pace, bounce, and carry.
There was no excessive seam movement, and some help for bowlers makes the contest even, which precisely happened in the opening Ashes 2025 Test. Even though Mitchell Starc ran through the English lineup, most of them played rash shots or didn’t try to apply themselves at the crease.
Even Australia’s batters followed the same template, and the pitch certainly became easier to bat on in the third and fourth innings, as depicted by the knocks from Head and Marnus Labuschagne. More than assistance for bowlers, it was down to rash batting and poor shot selection by batters from both teams that resulted in a two-day Test, and the pitch, while not flat, was fairly decent to bat.
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