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Don Bradman was the subject of the initial serious read I recall going through as a child. In the mind of a primary school student, the injustice of an English captain instructing his countrymen to hurt a brilliant Australian was unfathomable. And so, similar to countless others, I developed a dislike for England.

Excitement about the Ashes? It goes without saying. Cricket’s calendar makes this a special occasion to watch two of the top cricketing nations challenge and provoke each other over what we hope will be 25 days of interrogation with the traditional red ball.

As the celebrated all-rounder reminded us last week at the announcement of the ballot for the historic 2027 match, the Ashes has a special charm. “Historically, fans globally tunes into the Ashes,” he remarked. “It's about heritage, it’s the competition, you know that’s it all flat out.”

Across the UK, those two tightly fought contests – marked by Smith's prolific scoring and Stokes' heroic innings in 2019, and the Lord’s Long Room disgrace of 2023 – have met the expectations of what an Ashes battle should be. Yet, they have not had the equivalent resonance on the other side of the world when many locals falls asleep before the afternoon session begins.

On Australian soil, the Ashes has been less flat out than just flat for more than a decade. Fans down under anticipate their team to win and win handily, as it has been since the 1990s. Scott Boland’s 6-7 at the MCG wasn’t wrought in a furnace of competition, it was a comical English collapse reinforcing perceptions. A true rivalry should not be this way.

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The English team were greeted upon arrival by a tired headline in the city's paper, “Bazball”, accompanied by a portrayal of the widely respected Ben Stokes as “cocky”. The publication then had a go at “Average Joe” Root, also known as “Dud Root Down Under”. It was enough to elicit a typical media response, allowing the media to extract every last drop in the lead-up before the series begins.

In contrast, the previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy between the Aussies and India ignited excitement on its own. The highlight was the Melbourne match, a memory that will linger forever. The metrics, also, impressed. Over 800,000 attended the five Tests, the fourth most for any series in Australia and the top for any non-Ashes matchup. Viewers were captivated, not unlike the ratings surge for India’s tour of England this year, and multiple periods averaged more than two million TV fans.

Lately, the touching send-offs of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at the Sydney Cricket Ground made one-day cricket actually mean something. Compare the headline following the previous occasion England visited for a white ball tour: “Record-low MCG crowd for Australia-England ODI raises fears for ODI cricket's survival”.

India’s Rising Influence

Even though rain ruined the T20 series with India, what play we saw indicates Australia are lagging behind the short form’s global benchmark. For the women's game, at the World Cup last month, the home side knocked off the defending champions. The multi-format series kicking off in February-March is primed as a unofficial world title decider.

It’s easy to dismiss the colorful fan groups that flock to India’s matches – across all formats – as a mere result of the huge expat community of the world’s most populous nation. But, to bean counters and broadcast bosses, they are an boon.

India now matters more to Australia than its historical roots, given the countries share an ocean, colonial parallels, and growing cultural ties. India is set to surpass the UK, per ABS migration data, as the origin of the largest group of foreign-born Australian residents as soon. The struggling defence pact is prompting a recalibration of security priorities acknowledging the growing influence of Asian powers, a change that occurred years back in the sport of cricket.

Greg Chappell, who also coached India, noted last week that England was “our biggest traditional rival”, but also that “honestly, without India, cricket wouldn’t be the same”.

The Ultimate Test

Before Australia won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last summer, India had held it for a decade. In India, Australia haven't triumphed in more than 20 years. Should the hosts win back the urn easily this summer, losing the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India in the coming years would leave the Cummins era incomplete.

That elusive victory on the Indian soil remains the ultimate test for today's players, and a blip against England this summer – attributed to unfortunate bowler injury, just like 2005 and Glenn McGrath’s freak rolled ankle – would only fuel the story.

The tourists have not won an Ashes Test in Australia for almost 15 years, and despite the history, it cannot sustain a lopsided rivalry indefinitely. So, with a vibrant Indian team having recently departed, Ben Stokes’s players have a lot at stake. Triumph in the Ashes and remain significant. Alternatively surrender the trophy and with it an irreplaceable asset: the claim to being the top opponent. Please England, raise your game.