Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith has fired an early shot ahead of the Ashes 2025-26, questioning England’s pace attack and hinting that the selectors, along with skipper Ben Stokes, might have made a tactical misjudgment in their team selection. Despite Australia’s own injury concerns with Pat Cummins and Sean Abbott ruled out of the Perth Test, Smith believes that England’s pace-heavy setup may not be ideally suited to Australian conditions.

Speaking to reporters on November 13, Smith said, “Those sort of nibblers can be quite tricky. So they might have got things the wrong way around, if that makes sense, in terms of the pace from previous years. But obviously they've got those guys at their disposal now. They probably weren't fit, ready or old enough a few years back.”

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