Test matches in England in 2005

There were seven Test matches played in England in 2005. The first two were against Bangladesh, the bottom-ranked test team. England started this series ranked second in the LG ICC Test Championship table.

The remaining tests were played for the Ashes against Australia, the top-ranked team in the world. The series is widely regarded as one of the best ever played.

England v Bangladesh

First Test: England v Bangladesh (26–28 May)

Michael Vaughan won the toss and put Bangladesh in to bat at 10.30am on the first day at Lord's. The first ten overs of bowling by Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard were lacklustre, as neither mastered the early-morning swing and they bowled a wide line. A stronger side would have scored more runs in this period, by Bangladesh made only 31 before losing their first wicket. Bangladesh captain, Habibul Bashar then came and went with suicidal hoick when he was on three. The rest of the team succumbed quickly, often to bad balls as they failed to adjust to the English conditions. The English mixed the odd good length ball with the short and wide stuff, inducing edges through to the slips at regular intervals – although, admittedly, the Bangladeshis would never have been out if they'd tried to play a bit more defensively.

Javed Omar was the pick of the batsmen, scoring 22 before being caught by Marcus Trescothick off the most accurate of the English bowlers, Simon Jones. With six batsmen out in single figures, only Aftab Ahmed looked in control,...
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