The 2010–11 Ashes series (known as the Vodafone Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was the 66th series of Test cricket matches played to contest The Ashes. The series was played in Australia as part of the England cricket team's tour of the country during the 2010–11 season. Five Tests were played from 25 November 2010 to 7 January 2011. England won the series 3–1 and retained the Ashes, having won the previous series in 2009 by two Tests to one. It was the first time in 24 years that England had won the Ashes in Australia. As of 2025–26, it remains the most recent occasion that England has won an Ashes series in Australia.
Background Prior to the start of the 2010–11 Ashes series, Australia had won 31 series to England's 29. The remaining five were draws. England won the most recent series in 2009 by two Tests to one, but Australia had whitewashed the last one held on Australian soil (the 2006–07 series), winning 5–0. The last time England won the Ashes on Australian soil was in 1986–87.
The two countries also met in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 final in Bridgetown, Barbados on 16 May, with England winning by seven wickets with three overs to spare to claim their first ICC world championship. The two sides also played each other in England in June and July 2010 in a five-match ODI series as a prelude to the upcoming summer. England won the first three ODIs to claim the series, but the Australians won the last two.
The Australians remained in England to face Pakistan, losing both Twenty20 Internationals and drawing a two-Test series 1–1. England, meanwhile, beat Bangladesh 2–1 in a three-match ODI series and beat Pakistan in a controversial series – 3–1 in a four-match Test series, 2–0 in two T20Is and 3–2 in a five-match ODI series.
In the weeks leading up to the Ashes, Australia faced both India and Sri Lanka in India and Australia respectively. Australia played India in two Tests and three ODIs during October. They lost both Tests, and lost the ODI series 1–0, with the first and third games washed out without any cricket played. Sri Lanka faced Australia during the early part of November with Sri Lanka winning the only Twenty20 International and winning the ODI series 2–1.
Venues As with other recent Ashes series in Australia, this series was played at the main cricket grounds in Australia's five largest cities. Tickets for the Ashes series started selling on 25 July 2010, and within a week many Test days were sold out.
Test Location Stadium Name Capacity Date First Test Brisbane The Gabba 42,200 25–29 November Second Test Adelaide Adelaide Oval 36,000 3–7 December Third Test Perth WACA Ground 24,000 16–20 December Fourth Test Melbourne Melbourne Cricket Ground 100,000 26–30 December Fifth Test Sydney Sydney Cricket Ground 46,000 3–7 January
Squads The England squad was announced on 23 September 2010. In addition to England's 16-man squad, a 15-man Performance Programme squad was named that also toured Australia during the series. That squad arrived in Brisbane on 13 November, before playing a four-day match against a Queensland XI (25–28 November) and a Western Australia XI (7–10 December) in Perth before departing on 16 December.
A 17-man Australian squad was announced on 15 November 2010 for the first Ashes Test, and the squad was reduced to 13 five days later. The players included in that initial squad but who were not part of a final Test squad are marked with an asterisk below. In addition to the original 17-man squad, left-arm spinner Michael Beer and left-handed opening batsman Phillip Hughes were later called up for the final three Tests. When captain Ricky Ponting was ruled out of the final Test with a broken finger, Michael Clarke took over as captain and Brad Haddin became vice-captain.
Andrew Strauss (c) Alastair Cook (vc) James Anderson Ian Bell Tim Bresnan Stuart Broad Paul Collingwood Steven Davies (wk) Steven Finn Eoin Morgan Monty Panesar Kevin Pietersen Ajmal Shahzad Matt Prior (wk) Graeme Swann Chris Tremlett Jonathan Trott Ricky Ponting (c) Michael Clarke (vc) Michael Beer Doug Bollinger Xavier Doherty Callum Ferguson Brad Haddin (wk) Ryan Harris Nathan Hauritz Ben Hilfenhaus Phillip Hughes Michael Hussey Mitchell Johnson Simon Katich Usman Khawaja Marcus North Peter Siddle Steve Smith Shane Watson
Matches First Test
Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat first, a decision which his opposite number Ricky Ponting echoed was the right decision, but Strauss was dismissed after just three balls, cutting a Hilfenaus delivery that was too close to his body and giving a simple catch to Hussey in the gully. Jonathan Trott played well for his 29 before being castled by Shane Watson, but Kevin Pietersen forged a good partnership with Alistair Cook to take England safely to lunch and past three figures. However, midway through the afternoon session, Peter Siddle – celebrating his 26th birthday – removed Pietersen and Paul Collingwood in successive overs to reduce England to 125/4 and put Australia back on top. Ian Bell came to the crease and provided Cook with able support to see England safely through to tea.
Straight after the tea interval, Siddle ripped through England's lower-middle order, taking a hat-trick by first having Cook caught at slip for a patiently made 67, bowling Prior all ends up and trapping Broad LBW with a toe-crunching yorker; it was the first Ashes hat-trick since Darren Gough took three wickets in Sydney in 1999. When he removed Graeme Swann two overs later, also LBW, Siddle achieved his best Test career figures to date with 6/54. In and amongst the chaos of wickets falling around him, Bell continued to play positively, making a vital 76 before debutant Xavier Doherty took his first Test wicket by having him caught in the deep, and then bowled Anderson attempting a reverse-sweep for 11 to leave England all-out for an under-par score of 260. Australian openers Katich and Watson survived a tricky 30 minutes at the end of Day 1 to finish 25/0, leaving the Australians in a very strong position.
On Day 2, Katich and Watson enjoyed a good first hour of play before Anderson had Watson caught in the slips by Strauss for 38, and then captain Ponting strangled down the leg-side for 10 just after lunch. Katich reached his half-century before Steven Finn took his first Ashes wicket by taking a brilliant catch off his shoe-laces when Katich hit a delivery straight back to him. Michael Hussey was lucky to survive when, still on 0, he edged just centimetres short of Swann at second slip, and England were then left dumbfounded when what they thought was an audible edge off Michael Clarke's bat was not picked up on hot-spot, meaning Aleem Dar's on-field decision of not-out stood. Some aggressive bowling from Stuart Broad and Finn eventually led to Clarke's demise, caught behind for 9 having faced 50 deliveries, and Marcus North was sent back to the pavilion for just 1, leaving Australia in trouble at 143/5.
However, Michael Hussey was joined by wicket-keeper Brad Haddin just before tea on Day 2, and the pair proceeded to compile an outstanding partnership of 307 runs, a record sixth-wicket partnership at the Gabba, to guide Australia to a huge first innings lead. The partnership would last past tea on Day 3, before Haddin was finally out for 136. Hussey meanwhile continued on to an outstanding 195 before he too finally fell. The last three Australian wickets fell for just 23 runs, all to Finn, ending the innings on 481 all out. Although bowler Steven Finn finished with figures of 6/125 on his Ashes debut, England conceded a 221-run first innings deficit.
Beginning their second innings with 15 overs left on Day 3 and so many runs behind, captain Andrew Strauss and fellow opener Alistair Cook knew that victory was out of the question; to give themselves the best chance of saving a draw, they had to bat time as well as accumulate runs, just as Hussey and Haddin had proven on that day's play. Strauss survived an Australian review on just the second ball of the innings, and the pair survived until the end of the day at 19/0.
On Day 4, Strauss and Cook batted England back into the game. Although neither player scored very quickly - both having strike-rates around 50, they punished anything even slightly short and wide. Both reached their half centuries and were 135/0 at lunch, although Strauss was very fortunate when Mitchell Johnson put down a straight-forward chance at mid-off. Strauss would go on to make 110 before part-time off-spinner Marcus North deceived him in the flight to give Haddin a simple stumping, ending the opening partnership at 188, an English record at the ground, during which Strauss and Cook overtook Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe as England's highest-scoring pair of opening batsmen.Cook, however, just as he had done in the first innings, continued very patiently and was joined by Trott. Together, they set about compiling yet another huge partnership that Australia, try as they might, could not dent. Cook would reach his century just after tea, and Trott would pass 50 after having been put down at backward point by Clarke who couldn't hold onto a spectacular one-handed diving effort, and surviving an Australian LBW review. Bad light stopped play leaving England on 309/1, with a lead of 88 runs but they were by no means out of the woods yet; if Australia could bowl England out before lunch on the final day, there would still be plenty of time to make the necessary runs to win the game.
Cook and Trott, however, had other ideas, continuing to bat superbly. Clarke did drop an absolute sitter at first slip when Trott was on 75, but despite this scare, the pair piled on the runs in the morning session: Trott made his century, Cook made his double century, England passed 400 in the innings and took their overall lead past 200 all before the lunch break. There was minor controversy after lunch when Ponting claimed to have caught Cook at short mid-wicket, only for the umpires to ask for their own review and determine that there was not enough evidence to prove it was a clean catch, leaving the Australian distinctly aggrieved. The innings was finally brought to a close when Strauss declared with England on 517/1, leaving Australia just 41 overs to score 297 runs. Trott finished on 135 not out, combining with Cook for an unbeaten 329-run partnership. Cook, meanwhile, having occupied the crease for over 10 hours in a row across Days 3, 4 and 5, ended his stay on 235 not out, which broke Don Bradman's record for the highest Test score at the Gabba. Every Australian player shook Cook's hand as he left the field in recognition of his display.
With Australia beginning their second innings just before tea, both sides knew that a draw was virtually certain. Although Broad removed Katich for just 4, caught at slip by Strauss, Ricky Ponting made a quick-fire 51 in reply, leaving Australia 107/1 at the end of the day, ending the match in a draw.
Second Test