The Ashes Explained: Everything a Cricket Beginner Should Know

If you have recently started watching cricket in the UK, or you are thinking about picking up a bat for the first time at your local village club, you have almost certainly heard the word “Ashes” mentioned with a particular reverence. Commentators lower their voices slightly. Newspaper back pages clear their schedules. Whole summers are reorganised around it. But what exactly is the Ashes, why does it matter so much, and how does it connect to the broader game of cricket you are trying to understand? This guide answers all of those questions and gives you the grounding you need to follow the action, join a club, and genuinely understand what is happening on the pitch.

What Is the Ashes?

The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is contested roughly every two years, alternating between England and Australia as the host nation. Each series consists of five Test matches, and the team that wins the most Tests claims — or retains — the Ashes urn.

The series is widely regarded as one of the oldest and most intensely contested rivalries in all of sport, not just cricket. It predates the Football World Cup by over half a century and carries a cultural weight in both countries that is difficult to overstate.

The Origin of the Name

The name itself comes from a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times on 2 September 1882, following England’s defeat to Australia at The Oval in Kennington, South London. The notice read that English cricket had died, and “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.” It was a joke, but it stuck.

Later that winter, England toured Australia and won the series. A group of Melbourne women presented England captain Ivo Bligh with a small terracotta urn, reportedly containing the ashes of a burnt cricket bail. That tiny urn — less than 15 centimetres tall — is now held permanently at Lord’s Cricket Ground in St John’s Wood, London, displayed in the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Museum. A replica urn travels between the two countries, and the symbolic “possession” of the Ashes shifts depending on who won the most recent series.

Why Can’t England Just Take the Urn Home?

This is a question that genuinely baffles beginners and even seasoned followers. The original urn belongs to the MCC, which is the custodian of cricket’s laws and traditions. It is considered too fragile and historically significant to travel, so the teams compete for symbolic ownership rather than physical possession of the original artefact. Since 1998, a Waterford Crystal replica of the urn has been presented to the winning captain at the end of each series.

How Test Cricket Works: The Format Behind the Ashes

Understanding the Ashes requires understanding Test cricket, which is the longest and most demanding format of the game. A Test match is played over a maximum of five days, with each team batting twice. There are no powerplays, no six-ball over limits on innings, and no guaranteed result — a match can and frequently does end in a draw if weather or defensive play prevents a result.

The Structure of a Day’s Play

Each day of a Test is divided into three sessions: morning (11am to 1pm), afternoon (1.40pm to 3.40pm), and evening (4pm to 6pm), with breaks for lunch and tea. This structure has remained largely unchanged for well over a century and is part of what distinguishes Test cricket from the shorter formats like One Day Internationals (ODIs) or Twenty20 (T20) cricket.

In an Ashes series at English grounds, you will typically see matches played at:

Lord’s Cricket Ground, London — known as the Home of Cricket
Edgbaston, Birmingham — one of the most atmospheric grounds in the country
Headingley, Leeds — famous for extraordinary comebacks, including Botham’s Ashes in 1981
Old Trafford, Manchester — frequently affected by rain, to no one’s great surprise
The Oval, London — traditionally the final Test of a home series

What Does “Winning the Ashes” Actually Mean?

The team that wins three or more of the five Tests wins the series. If the series is drawn (for example, 2–2 after five Tests with one draw), the team that held the Ashes going into the series retains them. This means a drawn series is effectively a win for the defending holders — a fact that has caused considerable frustration for England fans over the years.

England have won the Ashes outright six times since 1989, with the most celebrated modern victories coming in 2005 (a 2–1 win under Michael Vaughan, widely considered one of the greatest sporting summers in English history), 2009, 2010–11 in Australia, and 2015. Australia have dominated for long stretches, particularly under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting in the late 1990s and 2000s.

The Basic Rules of Cricket for Beginners

Before the nuances of the Ashes make full sense, you need a working knowledge of how cricket itself operates. The laws of cricket are maintained and regularly updated by the MCC, based at Lord’s. The current version in force is the 2017 Code of the Laws of Cricket, amended in 2019. These laws govern every form of cricket played worldwide.

The Objective

Cricket is played between two teams of eleven players each. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible. The other team fields, attempting to dismiss the batting side and limit their score. The teams then swap roles. The team with the most runs at the end wins.

How Runs Are Scored

A run is scored when both batters (there are always two on the pitch at once) successfully run from one end of the pitch to the other after the batter has struck the ball. Additional runs are awarded when:

The ball reaches the boundary rope — four runs are added automatically
The ball clears the boundary without bouncing — six runs are awarded
The fielding side concedes extras, including wides and no-balls

How a Batter Is Dismissed

There are ten ways to be dismissed under the Laws of Cricket. The most common ones a beginner will see regularly are:

Bowled — the ball hits the stumps directly after being bowled
Caught — the ball is caught by a fielder before it bounces
LBW (Leg Before Wicket) — the batter’s leg (or body) prevents the ball from hitting the stumps, and the umpire judges the ball would have done so
Run Out — the batter fails to make their ground (reach the crease) before the fielding side breaks the stumps while the ball is in play
Stumped — the wicketkeeper dislodges the bails while the batter is out of their crease and not attempting a run

When ten of a batting side’s eleven players have been dismissed, the innings ends. You cannot have all eleven dismissed because there must always be two batters on the pitch to continue play.

How to Bat: A Beginner’s Introduction

Batting is about two things working together: technique and decision-making. Neither is innate. Both improve with practice, and most village cricket clubs across England welcome complete beginners who are willing to put in the time at nets.

The Batting Stance

Stand side-on to the bowler, with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart. Your weight should be balanced evenly. Bend slightly at the knees. Hold the bat with both hands together at the top of the handle, with the back of the top hand facing the bowler. This is the orthodox right-handed stance — simply mirror it if you bat left-handed.

The Forward Defensive Shot

This is the first shot every beginner should learn because it is the foundation of all batting. When the ball is pitched on a good length (roughly 6 to 8 metres from the stumps), move your front foot towards the pitch of the ball, drop your elbow, and present a firm, straight bat face to the ball. The objective is not to score — it is to survive and protect your wicket. In Test cricket, especially in the Ashes, a batter who can defend solidly under pressure is worth their weight in the dressing room.

The Cover Drive

Once you have the forward defensive, the cover drive is the natural next step. It is one of cricket’s most aesthetically pleasing shots and involves driving a ball pitched outside off stump through the covers (the arc of the field between mid-off and point) with a full swing of the bat. It requires timing rather than brute force — a lesson every junior cricketer at their local club eventually learns the hard way.

Reading the Bowler

Good batting starts before the ball is bowled. Watch the bowler’s wrist position, their run-up, and their arm angle. A high arm suggests a more upright delivery; a lower arm angle can produce swing or awkward angles. At village level, you will face a wide range of bowling styles — some very fast, some very slow, and some entirely unpredictable. The key for a beginner is to watch the ball from the moment it leaves the bowler’s hand and to resist the urge to commit too early.

How to Bowl: Getting Started

Bowling is the most varied and technically complex skill in cricket, and it is where many beginners discover their greatest joy. There are fast bowlers, medium-pace bowlers, and spin bowlers, and each requires a different approach.

The Basic Seam Bowling Action

For a beginner learning to bowl medium pace, hold the ball with the seam upright, your index and middle fingers on top of the seam and your thumb resting underneath. Run in at a comfortable pace, keep your non-bowling arm high to help with alignment, and deliver the ball with a high, straight arm action. The seam should hit the pitch first, which encourages the ball to move off the surface unpredictably — a basic form of seam movement.

Moving Forward

Once you have the fundamentals in place, the possibilities open up considerably. The UK offers fantastic opportunities for anyone interested in this hobby, and with the right foundation you will be well placed to make the most of them.