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)

108 & 159 England won by an innings and 261 runsJaved Omar 22 MJ Hoggard 4–42 Khaled Mashud 44 SP Jones 3–29Lord's, London Umpires: K Hariharan (Ind) and DJ Harper (Aus) Man of the Match: ME Trescothick (Eng) 528/3dME Trescothick 194 MP Vaughan 120 Mashrafe Mortaza 2–107

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, before he also edged Andrew Flintoff to slip. In the end, Bangladesh made just 108 in 38.2 overs, despite being boosted by 12 English no-balls – eight from Hoggard, four from Harmison. Few batsmen even displayed the standard practice of getting behind a swinging ball and playing with a straight bat, preferring instead to stay still and nudge at the ball.

Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss then batted to tea with composure, taking the boundaries off Test debutant Shahadat Hossain in particular, and the pair made 70 runs before tea – meaning that England were only 38 off with ten wickets in hand after two sessions. An hour after tea, England brought up the lead, with Strauss having notched his fifty despite looking slightly shaky against Anwar Hossain Monir bowling, and then being dropped on 51. Trescothick then made his fifty with a four off Mohammad Rafique. The opening partnership eventually was worth 148, as Strauss was nearly lbw on 69 with an inswinging ball on one ball and then finally lbw on the next, Mashrafe Mortaza getting rewards for his patient bowling.

England, however, continued to paste the bowlers, although skipper Michael Vaughan was lucky on more than one occasion – the most notable when he was dropped by Mohammad Rafique off Rafique's own bowling. By stumps, however, the pair had added 40, and they continued on a sunny second day – less rusty, however, than they had been on the first day. It was all too embarrassing for Bangladesh, as Vaughan raced to 120 before being caught behind off Mashrafe. Four overs later, the patient Rafique finally got his reward, Khaled Mashud coming up with a magnificent catch to get Trescothick out six short of a double century. That was as good as it got for Bangladesh, though, as Ian Bell, Warwickshire's prodigy, made 65 not out, and Graham Thorpe ran runs everywhere to score 42 not out with only two boundaries, before Vaughan decided that enough was enough and declared with seven wickets in hand and a lead of 420 runs.

Bangladesh's reply was a sorry one. Yet again, they failed to play the short ball well enough, and lost five wickets – Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff the main culprits, taking two each – for a miserable 65 before Khaled Mashud and Aftab Ahmed took some responsibility and guided them to stumps with 95 for 5. It was not to last, though. Only six balls into the third day, Hoggard bowled a good off-cutter to Aftab Ahmed, who failed to play it properly and was hit on the pads – out for a fine 32, Bangladesh's highest score in the Test series so far.

Steve Harmison then bowled the next over from the Pavilion End, removing spinner Rafique for a duck on his second ball of the over as he was caught behind and then having Mortaza bowled as Mortaza missed the ball only to have it graze his pad and roll behind him to hit his leg stump. Bangladesh had lost three wickets for two runs in the space of nine balls, and Harmison nearly added another wicket to his tally as he hit Anwar Hossain Monir on the pad in front. However, umpire Hariharan wasn't convinced it was going to hit the stumps, and Harmison was denied the hat-trick.

The end looked to be even more abrupt than people could think before the third day had started. However, a no-ball-aided recovery and some fine batting from wicket-keeper Khaled Mashud, who surpassed Aftab Ahmed's score, sent the match into a slow-death period. Anwar Hossain and Khaled Mashud did, however, manage to put on 58 together for the ninth wicket, Bangladesh's best partnership of the match. Simon Jones eventually broke through the defences, though, as Anwar Hossain Monir got a standard thick edge to first slip Trescothick, and thus the ninth wicket fell – 156 for 9. An over later, Khaled Mashud was finally out, giving an awkward edge off Andrew Flintoff's bowling to Graham Thorpe at short leg and ending the innings on 159 all out – giving England an innings and 261 run win just before noon, half an hour before lunch, on the third day. Gareth Batty – England's spin-bowler, who came in to replace the injured Ashley Giles – was only mentioned on the official scorecard once, as he did not bat, did not bowl, and did not hold a catch. Trescothick was named man of the match for his 194. (Cricinfo scorecard)

Second Test: England v Bangladesh (3–5 June)

104 & 326 England won by an innings and 27 runsJaved Omar 37 SJ Harmison 5/38 Aftab Ahmed 82* Javed Omar 71 Habibul Bashar 63 MJ Hoggard 5/73Riverside, Chester-le-Street Umpires: DJ Harper (Aus) and AL Hill (NZ) Man of the Match: MJ Hoggard (Eng) Men of the Series: ME Trescothick (Eng) and Javed Omar (Ban) 447/3dME Trescothick 151 IR Bell 162* GP Thorpe 66* Mashrafe Mortaza 2/91

Michael Vaughan won the toss again, just like in the first Test, and put Bangladesh into bat. A thoroughly professional bowling performance from the England bowlers followed, with Harmison, playing at his home ground, making the most of the conditions to take 5 wickets as the clearly outclassed Bangladeshis succumbed for 104. Only Javed Omar and Khaled Mashud made it into double figures. In reply, England quickly overcame the deficit for the loss of just Andrew Strauss, the only English batter who averaged less than 80 in this Test series. By close on the first day England were 269 for 3, with pundits reckoning the game would not reach the third day.

On the second day, Ian Bell became the first Englishman to score 100 before lunch in a Test match for 70 years, the last one being Les Ames, as both Bell and Thorpe hit out ahead of the predicted lunchtime declaration, which happened with England on 447 for 3. What followed was what the series had been crying out for earlier: a spirited Bangladeshi performance with proper cricketing shots. Whilst some Bangladeshis did get out to wild shots, the senior players got behind the ball, selected which ball to play, and made the most of the aggressive field placings chosen by England to make partnerships and build innings.

First out was Nafees Iqbal, caught behind for 15 with the score on 50. Iqbal was unlucky, as the video replays suggested the ball had bounced before going into Geraint Jones's gloves, but despite returning to the pitch to appeal to the umpires, Iqbal had to go. Opener Javed Omar, captain Habibul Bashar and Aftab Ahmed all made half-centuries as it was touch and go as to whether England would wrap it up in the two days. When the seventh wicket fell at 245 in the last over of normal play, it allowed England to claim the extra half-hour. But only one more wicket fell as Bangladesh restored some pride. England wrapped up the game within 20 minutes on the third day, but Bangladesh, albeit against an attacking field had made 316, 27 short of making the hosts bat again.

England therefore won the two Test series 2–0, taking both matches by more than an innings. This was their fifth successive Test series win, and the first time that the English had won five successive Test series since 1971. With their first three innings all being over before the Bangladeshis made 200, the series was clearly England's, who consolidated their position at second in the ICC Test Championship table. Bangladesh remain bottom in tenth place. Afterwards England captain Michael Vaughan said, "It's difficult to judge how much we've got out of these games because we've won so easily. We've not had those real tough-in sessions and fight-through sessions where we've lost a batch of wickets. We have had stages when we had to knuckle down but it has been easier than I expected. To win two Test matches in almost two days each is obviously quite an easy series victory." (Cricinfo scorecard)

England v Australia

First Test: England v Australia (21–24 July)

190 & 384 Australia won by 239 runsJL Langer 40 SJ Harmison 5/43 MJ Clarke 91 SJ Harmison 3/54Lord's, London, England Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and RE Koertzen (SA) Man of the Match: GD McGrath (Aus) 155 & 180KP Pietersen 57 GD McGrath 5/53 KP Pietersen 64* GD McGrath 4/29

Day One

A low-scoring first day of cricket at Lord's included two batting collapses, first from Australia and then from England who got their go at batting just before tea. Ricky Ponting won the toss and chose to bat, and after Steve Harmison had shaken up the opening batsmen early on, hitting Australia's batsmen with bouncers, in particular one that had Justin Langer on the elbow, a procession of wickets began. Matthew Hoggard was inaccurate, but the early swing under the cloud suited him, and the ball that he did get on line swung between bat and pad to smash into Matthew Hayden's off stump. Australia still scored quickly, helped by aggressive field placings from England, but Harmison got the reward for short and pacy bowling when Ricky Ponting edged him to Andrew Strauss at third slip for 9. Langer, who had looked immaculate all morning and taken on the bowlers, was next to depart, Michael Vaughan getting reward with his bowling changes as Andrew Flintoff lured Langer into an expansive pull to Harmison at square-leg. And when Simon Jones was brought on in the sixteenth over, he got an immediate reward, with Damien Martyn gone for 2. Another man came and went before lunch, Michael Clarke, and Australia were five down after the first session of play.