After a match-winning bowling performance in the fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne that saw host England win their first Test against Australia Down Under after 5468 days, fast bowler Josh Tongue’s stocks have gone up. A five-wicket haul in the first innings and two scalps in the second, Tongue was the pick of England’s pace attack, which led the way for a win after three humiliating losses.
Having missed out on the first two Tests in Perth and Brisbane, Tongue made a serious impact ever since his inclusion in the playing XI in the Adelaide Test. A four-wicket haul in the second innings of the Adelaide game, followed by a total of seven wickets in Melbourne, Tongue has 12 wickets in two Tests of the series.
Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad said Tongue should have played more Tests in the series, and England missed the trick by not including him in the Gabba Test. While evaluating England’s pace bowlers, Broad also said Tongue has done himself a world of good in this tour.
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“Tongue should have played more. He was the Player of the Match in Melbourne and you look now and think did England miss a trick not playing him, certainly at The Gabba and maybe even at Optus Stadium in the first Test?,” Broad said to Sky Sports.
“He exposes a full length, has got Steve Smith out three times in Test cricket and twice in county cricket, and bowls with a slightly different angle: wider of the crease, but can move the ball away. He needs protecting in the sense that he is going to bowl bad balls, so you need someone in the bowling attack that will defend and hold an area, but Tongue has done himself the world of good being on this trip,” he added.
Yet to make his T20I debut, Tongue was included in England’s provisional squad for the upcoming ICC 2026 T20 World Cup, set to take place in India.
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England will lock horn with Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground for the fifth and last Test of the tour. The Test will start on 4 January.
