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“Dangerous”: The biggest Ashes threat to Australia
Andrew Slevison • October 27th, 2025 11:25 am
What is the biggest threat to Australia in the upcoming Ashes series against England?
Former Aussie opener Simon Katich has assessed the touring English squad and pinpointed where he believes they could flourish.
While there has been plenty of talk about the pace and bounce of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, the nation's emerging quicks should not be overlooked.
Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue - both 27 - are seen as quality bowlers and although inexperienced they can do some damage down under says Katich.
“They’re dangerous if they get it right, particularly with their bowling lineup,” Katich said on SEN Breakfast.
“Everyone is talking about Archer and Wood, but they’ve got a couple of young quicks that I’ve seen first-hand the last few years, albeit in white-ball cricket, but they have played some Test cricket.
“Gus Atkinson and the other one is Josh Tongue who was with us at (The Hundred side) Manchester (Originals). These boys can bowl, they’ve got some good air speed they’re both tall lads, they get good bounce.
“So if we decide to juice the wickets up, which we’ve been doing the last few years, our boys have to bat well because they could play four guys bowling 140km/h and just keep coming at us all day with short stuff and making it hard to score.
“But they don’t have a lot of experience in these conditions and if it’s hot, they’re not used to those conditions and that’ll be the test. A number of those quicks haven’t played a lot of back-to-back Tests and that’s probably going to be the big question mark for them.”
Tongue has played six Tests for 31 wickets at an average of 30, while Atkinson has played 13 Tests for 63 scalps at 22.01.
However, SEN Cricket’s Katich did have concerns for England’s ‘Bazball’ batting lineup who might not get it all their way on Australia’s normally pacy decks.
“The danger is they get the right conditions with the bat, get on a roll and we don’t stop them with our bowling lineup. They could be a threat,” he added.
“How does their batting lineup handle our bowlers in our conditions with the pace and bounce? Because they’re used to playing on slower wickets where they can bully guys.
“Here in Australia it can be hard to do that if you want to play ‘Bazball’ and the ball is flying through and nipping around 140km/h.
“I still back in our boys to get the job done, but we’ve got to bat well because if we don’t it will be a tight series.”
The 2025/26 Ashes kicks off in Perth on November 21 and SEN Cricket will there broadcasting every ball across the SEN network.
