Twenty years on, a montage of the 2005 Ashes still tingles the spine. Close your eyes and you can probably make your own, with an Embrace soundtrack if you want to be right on the nose. Chances are you'll see Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff belting sixes with lusty abandon; Geraint Jones wheeling away after winning the epic Edgbaston Test; Ashley Giles calmly patting the winning runs at Trent Bridge;
If it feels like the buildup to this Ashes series has lasted 842 days that is because it pretty much has. Test cricket's oldest rivalry resumes on Friday inside Perth's 60,000-seat thunderdome and with it, mercifully, comes fresh fuel for the ever-raging fire. Because on one level the Ashes never really starts or stops. Since Stuart Broad nicked off Alex Carey at the Oval on 31 July 2023 the final act of a dramatic 2-2 draw