Women’s Ashes rivals united in appeal for three Tests in multi-format series

Australia all-rounder Ash Gardner and England opener Tammy Beaumont have put their rivalry to one side to call for the Women’s Ashes to be expanded with the addition of more Test matches.

The Women’s Ashes has been played across three T20s, three ODIs and a single Test since the multi-format series was introduced in 2013. The 2025 series will again include seven matches but only one Test when Australia begin their defence of the trophy in a one-day international at North Sydney Oval on 12 January.

The winner of the Women’s Ashes series is decided on overall points. Two points are awarded to the victorious side in each white-ball contest, and four points are on offer in the Test. Points are split between the teams for a draw, tie and abandoned match.

But with a resurgence in women’s Tests in recent years, Gardner and Beaumont were united in their call for more clashes between the teams in the most traditional format.

“Personally, I would love to see three, three and three,” Gardner said of her preferred split between the formats. “It is obviously going to make the tours a lot longer, I am not sure where you are going to fit it in that timeframe, knowing we have to play overseas competitions as well.

“I would just love to play more Test cricket against England. Playing the one Test feels like a bit of a novelty at times. We have really good white-ball games against England and other teams around the world, but the way that our teams match up, it would be a really cool Test series.”

Gardner was player of the match in the Test that kickstarted the 2023 Women’s Ashes at Trent Bridge for taking 12 wickets and making 40 runs in her only knock. Beaumont amassed 208 in the hosts’ first innings reply, before Gardner sealed Australia’s triumph with eight wickets as England fell 89 runs short in the chase.

View image in fullscreen Australia’s Ash Gardner and Phoebe Litchfield and England’s Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Bell pose at the SCG. Photograph: Jason McCawley/Getty Images for Cricket Australia

Australia won the T20I that followed to open up an early six-point lead, before England took out four of the next five white-ball matches to level the series on eight points apiece. While England had the better of Australia in the limited-over formats, Beaumont threw her support behind Gardner’s call for more Tests to be part of the series.

“I completely agree with Ash, I would love to see three, three, three,” Beaumont said. “The best thing about the Ashes is the narrative, the rivalry, how it builds over time.

“You saw in the India-Australia men’s Test series that the narratives build over a five-match series and even in a three-match series.”

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The only Test in the 2025 series will be played last with a historic four-day pink-ball match at the MCG. The clash will be the first day-night Test at the venue, and the first time the Australia women’s side have hosted a Test at the ground since 1949.

It will also mark Australia’s return to the iconic stadium for the first time since their 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup final victory over India in front of 86,174 fans. The rise of women’s cricket in Australia was stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic but a record-breaking aggregate crowd of 23,207 turned out for the women’s Test at Trent Bridge in 2023.

Australia young gun Phoebe Litchfield sent a rallying cry for local fans to match England’s home support while brushing aside suggestions that the rivalry has not yet truly taken hold.

“Because we play together a bit, you like them individually, but then once you put them all together in an England shirt, it’s like, ‘OK, I still want to beat you’,” Litchfield said. “You’re mates off the field, but as soon as they put that colour on, you want to smash them.

“I feel like women’s cricket fans, especially in Australia, are very polite, so we’ll see … maybe just be less polite.”

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