Australian Steve Waugh has the greatest victory % among Ashes winning captains. He led Australia to eight victories and one defeat in nine Ashes matches. Charles Bannerman, who won the first two Tests for Australia, is regarded as the first great England captain.
The most recent edition of The Cricket Captains & Legends website ranks Steve Waugh as the best captain in the history of the Ashes. He achieved this award despite having the opportunity to become only the second player after Donald Bradman to win three consecutive Ashes titles. In addition, he also won two five-match series (against India A in 2001 and Pakistan in 2003).
Steve Waugh's final match as an Australian captain was the 1st Test match against England at Melbourne on 15 January 2008. He finished with a record 100% victory rate in the series. During his tenure, Australia completed a series victory every time they played England. This record will likely be broken by Michael Clarke if he manages to lead Australia to success on home soil this summer during the 2013/14 series.
Other notable winners of the Ashes award include Arthur Jardine and Fred Morley. The former managed to guide England to victory in the first ever Test match back in 1877 at The Oval.
He led Australia to eight victories and one defeat in nine Ashes matches. Sir Don Bradman, Ricky Ponting, Ian Chappell, and John Brearley are among the other players on the Ashes winners' captaincy list...
| Player | Ricky Ponting |
|---|---|
| Team | AUS |
| Matches | 19 |
| Won | 8 |
| Lost | 6 |
Sir Donald Bradman, whose 334 remains the best Test score by an Australian, is again second on the list of Ashes top individual scores...
In the Ashes, Jack Hobbs (left) and Herbert Sutcliffe were two of England's most successful hitters. Don Bradman (left), who has scored more runs in the Ashes than any other player, with Gubby Allen during the toss of the first Test of the 1936-37 Ashes. Shane Warne played 14 Ashes Tests for Australia, claiming a record 195 wickets. He is the only man to have taken five wickets in an innings twice in the same series.
The most successful batsmen in the series are England's David Harvey (right) and Australia's Donald Bradman (left). They both have four victories to their names. Charles Bannerman (not shown) and Victor Trumper also have four wins to their name. The only other player to have achieved this feat is George Lohmann, who has three victories to his credit.
Ashes cricket is a five-match series between England and Australia over several weeks in late August or early September. It is held annually as one of the principal tests of its kind throughout the world. The name comes from the fact that it was originally used to determine which team would go into retirement after playing each other on a regular basis.
The series was invented by Henry Blofeld, who wrote that "the most important event in English cricket outside the annual season" had occurred: the appointment of MCC as official umpires of the game. The first Test match was played at Lord's in July 1877; Australia won by an innings and 130 runs.
Sir Donald Bradman, the Australian icon and perhaps the finest batsman in history, is the only player to hit more than 4,000 runs in the Ashes series. He holds the record for scoring the most runs in the Ashes, with 5028 runs at an average of 89.79. George Bailey is second on the list with 4598 runs.
The greatest hitter of all time? It's hard to argue with Sir Donald Bradman. The fact that he played during an era when the game was less free-flowing than it is today makes him even more impressive a statistician. His average of 99.94 is also very high for his time. In fact, only two other players have scored more than 4000 runs and averaged over 40: Mike Atherton (who died in 2001) and Sachin Tendulkar. Neither of them plays anymore.
Bradman held almost every batting record there were to be held until Clive Lloyd came along. The South African cricketer invented several shots that are used today by top batsmen. He has been called "the prince of pullers" because of his ability to clear the ground with powerful pulls off the back foot. Lloyd also popularized the idea of having a single keeper while others go about their business behind the stumps. This saves money but also means that the keepers outfielder cannot guard any one particular ball so they have to be able to field quickly.
The Ashes series England's inaugural Ashes series was led by the Right Honourable Ivo Bligh. Don Bradman (left), who has scored the most runs in the Ashes, and Gubby Allen during the toss of the first Test of the 1936-37 Ashes. The match was drawn.
England won the second Test by an innings and 42 runs to take a lead of 1-0 after two matches. The third and final Test was lost by England by an innings and 119 runs. Thus Australia took home their first ever cricket trophy!
England's first attempt at the Ashes ended in failure as well. The 1912-13 series was played over three matches with each side having a chance to win one match. However, this series too was not enough to decide the champion as both countries had the same record - one win and one loss - so they had to go into another series time. This time around, England won 2-1.
Australia returned the favor in 1933-34 when they defeated England 2-1. Both Herb Matthews (right) and Len Hutton (left) were successful captains during this period. Hutton retired after the second Test while Matthews died in office during the fourth Test.
England won the next two series against Australia - 1974-75 and 1975-76 - but both those victories were by narrow margins of 1-0.
Graeme Smith (left) holds the record for most Test matches played as captain, as well as the most Test victories. With a victory percentage of 72 percent, Steve Waugh (right) is the most successful Test captain.
Steve Borthwick was the first captain to win his maiden Test match, doing so against England at Edgbaston in July 1877. The last captain to lose a Test match was Bangladesh's Abul Hasan Ali on August 24, 2017. They lost the third Test match by an innings and 157 runs to be defeated 0-1. This is the first time that a team has lost every single match they have played as captain.
Ashes 2017: This is the second consecutive season that India has won the five-match series 4-1. Ravi Shastri has become the first coach to lead a side to success in their first two tours under him when India toured Australia in 2011-12 and South Africa in 2012-13. He also managed to guide India to victory in both tests on each of those tours.
Anil Kumble is the only captain to win a Test match after being dismissed below 100. He achieved this feat against England at Lord's in 1999. It was also the only time he led India to victory outside Asia.
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