It is rare for any wicket to reflect well on a batter but England have lost several to brainfades across the 2025-26 Ashes series, epitomised by Jamie Smith's ugly swipe to deep extra cover off Marnus Labuschagne's short ball on the second morning in Sydney. Was that the single worst dismissal of England's tour? Here are our top 10… Joe Root and Ben Stokes had batted together for over an hour to lead England's recovery from 176 for 4 on a good batting pitch in Brisbane, grinding out two runs per over against Australia's seamers.

Desperate to rotate strike, Stokes pushed Brendan Doggett into the off side and set off for a single that was never on and was run out by a direct hit from the swooping Josh Inglis, and 210 for 4 quickly became 264 for 9. Harry Brook pledged to "rein it in a little bit" ahead of the third Test in Adelaide, after two dismissals playing "shocking shots" in Perth and Brisbane (see below).

But after putting on 68 with Zak Crawley on a docile pitch, sweeping and reverse-sweeping with precision and poise, he picked the wrong ball to reverse and lost his leg stump to Nathan Lyon's drag-down, then stood at the crease bemused as to what had happened.  Ollie Pope repeatedly highlighted the need for "complete clarity" during his media commitments before the second Test in Brisbane but played like a man with a scrambled mind.

With England 5 for 1 in the third over, he attempted a jumping cut to a ball from Starc that shaped back in to cramp him for room, skewed off his under-edge, and crashed into his leg stump.  England's top order continued to drive on the up despite mounting evidence of its perils across the first two Tests, and Crawley's dismissal on the third evening at the Gabba was particularly mindless. After watching Michael Neser drop Ben Duckett off his own bowling, then dismiss Pope in the same manner, Crawley played a hard-handed drive off a good-length ball and chipped back another catch. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)