The Ashes: Fixtures, TV coverage, latest odds and squad details

The Ashes Tour results

November 4-5, 2017

Tour match, Perth: Western Australia XI (342-10) drew with England XI (349-6d)

November 8-11

Tour match, Adelaide: England XI (293 & 207) beat Cricket Australia XI (233-9d & 75) by 192 runs

November 15-18

Tour match, Townsville: Cricket Australia XI (250 & 364-4) drew with England XI (515)

November 23-27

First Ashes Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets

• First Ashes Test report and scorecards
• First Ashes Test recap
• First Ashes Test Five-fer

December 2-6

Second Ashes Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs

• Second Ashes Test report and scorecards
• Second Ashes Test recap
• Second Ashes Test Five-fer

December 14-18

Third Ashes Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs

• Third Ashes Test report and scorecards
• Third Ashes Test recap
• Third Ashes Test Five-fer

December 26-30

Fourth Ashes Test, Melbourne: Match drawn

• Fourth Ashes Test report and scorecards
• Fourth Ashes Test recap
• Fourth Ashes Test Five-fer

January 4-8

Fifth Ashes Test, Sydney: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs

• Fifth Ashes Test report and scorecards
• Fifth Ashes Test recap
• Fifth Ashes Test Five-fer

What TV channel is the Ashes on?

The Ashes is being broadcast exclusively live in the UK by BT Sport, available on the Sky platform as well as BT TV, the BT Sport app an online player, and BT Mobile. BT Sport will also broadcast a daily 90-minute highlights show. There are no free-to-air highlights on UK television.

The Ashes: Latest news

Click here for all the latest news from the England and Australia camps.

England's Ashes squad

Joe Root, captain

• Age: 26
• Caps: 60
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Off-break
• Profile: Now firmly established among the very best batsmen in the world with over 5000 Test runs to his name at an average approaching 54. Much will rest on how Root is able to cope with the pressures of captaining in the Ashes for the first time while still maintaining his own form with the bat.

Moeen Ali

• Age: 30
• Caps: 44
• Role: All-rounder
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Off-break
• Profile: A key member of the side with both bat and ball. Dangerous lower middle-order batsman capable of turning a good position into a great one or (more often) counter-attacking after a top-order failure. Improving all the time as an off-spinner, although Australia has historically not been kind to visiting finger spinners.

James Anderson

• Age: 35
• Caps: 129
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
• Profile: Comfortably England’s leading Test wicket-taker and one of only three seamers to break the 500 barrier. A master of swing bowling with the Duke ball in English conditions, England will surely need him to improve on a modest record in Australia with the less responsive Kookaburra ball.

Jonny Bairstow

• Age: 28
• Caps: 45
• Role: Wicketkeeper-batsman
• Batting: Right-hand
• Profile: Hard-hitting batsman who has seen off the challenge of Jos Buttler and others to become a clear first-choice with the gloves. Capable of playing as a top-six specialist bat in his own right, but has worked tirelessly on his keeping and – like Matt Prior before him – has improved dramatically to a point of reliability. Should enjoy Australian pitches both in front of and behind the stumps.

Jake Ball

• Age: 26
• Caps: 3
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
• Profile: Notts seamer has impressed on his limited opportunities with England so far and, with Ben Stokes absent and Steven Finn sent home injured, appears to be in a straight fight with Craig Overton for the fourth seamer spot.

Gary Ballance

• Age: 27
• Caps: 23
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Leg-break
• Profile: A controversial pick. Started his Test career in fine style, with four centuries and an average at one time north of 60. But his idiosyncratic back-foot technique has been increasingly exposed at the top level as his numbers spiral downwards. Had a tough time in a summer cut short by injury and it speaks to both a lack of imagination and options that he is back with the squad in Australia.

Stuart Broad

• Age: 31
• Caps: 109
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
• Profile: Now second only to his new-ball partner Anderson on England’s all-time Test wickets list, has a superb Ashes record on home soil having produced arguably the single most decisive spell in each of the last three home series victories, including 2015’s astonishing 8-15 at Trent Bridge. Hasn’t been as successful in Australia, leaving the 2010/11 victory early due to injury and fading after a bright start during the 2013/14 whitewash.

Alastair Cook

• Age: 32
• Caps: 147
• Role: Opening batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm slow
• Profile: The first man to score 10000 runs as an opening batsman, and still respected in Australia for his phenomenal 766 runs and three hundreds during the 2010/11 series. Modest record in series here either side of that, though, and – like Root – England’s batting will rely heavily on the former captain.

Mason Crane

• Age: 20
• Caps: 0
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Leg-break
• Profile: Hugely talented young legspinner who is already big news in Australia having broken into the New South Wales Sheffield Shield side last winter during a spell playing Grade cricket. In truth, his first-class stats are poor – his average remains the wrong side of 40 – but he has shown enough in white-ball cricket to suggest the highest level will not faze him. Moeen's side injury has raised the serious prospect of an Ashes chance for the youngster.

Tom Curran

• Age: 22
• Caps: 0
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
• Profile: Drafted after Steven Finn's untimely departure through injury, the Surrey seamer clearly caught the eye in his early appearances in the Twenty20 and one-day-international ranks. Brimming with confidence and a born competitor, though not exactly battle-hardened. Son of former Zimbabwe international Kevin and brother to county team-mate Sam.

Ben Foakes

• Age: 24
• Caps: 0
• Role: Wicketkeeper-batsman
• Batting: Right-hand
• Profile: Got the nod as back-up keeper, and hailed by Surrey legend Alec Stewart as the best gloveman in the world. Also a stylish and destructive batsman; if the under-pressure specialists fail, Foakes may yet find his way in the side before winter is out.

Dawid Malan

• Age: 30
• Caps: 5
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Leg-break
• Profile: Did just about enough in the summer to keep his place for the biggest tour of them all, and as the man in possession should probably just about see off Balance to start the series at number five. Will need to improve markedly on what we’ve seen thus far, while his leg-spin bowling has perhaps been under-used in his brief Test career to date. His first-class bowling average is better than Crane’s.

Craig Overton

• Age: 23
• Caps: 0
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm medium-fast
• Profile: One of a pair of fast-bowling, hard-hitting Somerset twins, Craig Overton gets his first taste of senior England Test action having leapfrogged his quicker, less steady brother following two years of steady development at Taunton and with the Lions. Scrapping with Ball for the final spot in the team.

Mark Stoneman

• Age: 30
• Caps: 3
• Role: Opening batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Off-break
• Profile: The latest in Alastair Cook's long list of post-Strauss opening partners, and the jury is out after his first three Tests against the West Indies. Has a solid enough technique and temperament, while Cook rates him highly. It may only be his second series in the role, but history suggests it’s make-or-break for the Surrey man.

James Vince

• Age: 26
• Caps: 7
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm medium
• Profile: Hugely fortunate to be on the tour after a failed summer in the Test side in 2016 ��� he failed to reach 50 in seven Tests – and a fallow summer back in county cricket with Hampshire. An elegant dispatcher of bad bowling, huge doubts remain about his judgement and technique against the very best bowling. Will start the series at three. Whether he ends it still in situ is far less clear.

Chris Woakes

• Age: 28
• Caps: 18
• Role: All-rounder
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
• Profile: A key member of the England team until injury struck this summer. Played only one Test, the shock defeat to West Indies at Headingley, and looked well short of a gallop. If back to his best, will have a huge role to play as third seamer and, in the absence of Ben Stokes, number-seven batsman.

Australia's Ashes squad

Steven Smith, captain

• Age: 28
• Caps: 56
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Leg-break
• Profile: Do not copy his technique - it is all his own - but it works for him, and the Australia captain has made himself one of the best batsmen in the world.

Cameron Bancroft

• Age: 25
• Caps: 0
• Role: Opening batsman
• Batting: Right-hand
• Profile: Stunning start to the domestic season saw the Western Australian controversially unseat struggling incumbent Renshaw. Like Renshaw, a patient, watchful counterpoint to Warner's aggression.

Matt Renshaw

• Age: 21
• Caps: 10
• Role: Opening batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Off-break
• Profile: The Middlesbrough-born left-hander arrived in Australia, via New Zealand, as a 10-year-old. He has a British passport, an obdurate method and is the ideal foil to his attacking opening partner Warner.

David Warner

• Age: 31
• Caps: 66
• Role: Opening batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Leg-break
• Profile: The bullish left-hander has been playing plenty of shots off the field as well as on of late. If he fires at the top of the order, England will be in trouble.

Usman Khawaja

• Age: 30
• Caps: 24
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm medium
• Profile: A third successive left-hander at the top of Australia's likely batting line-up, stylish Khawaja has put together some handy Test stats since making his debut against England in the final 2010-11 Ashes Test in Sydney as the tourists romped to their famous victory.

Peter Handscomb

• Age: 26
• Caps: 10
• Role: Middle-order batsman, occasional wicketkeeper
• Batting: Right-hand
• Profile: Where Smith habitually props forward, this chap always hangs back. It is a movement which has not necessarily seen him in his best light in seasons with Gloucestershire and Yorkshire, but one much more likely to pay off on home soil. Another with a British passport, he has made an impressive start to his Test career.

Shaun Marsh

• Age: 34
• Caps: 23
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Slow left-arm
• Profile: Handed yet another recall at 34 due to the dearth of available options for Australia at number six. Made nought and two in only previous Ashes Test - the 60 all out game at Trent Bridge - while his selection leaves Australia with no all-rounder and wholly reliant on their four frontline bowlers.

Hilton Cartwright

• Age: 25
• Caps: 2
• Role: All-rounder
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm medium
• Profile: There is a hotchpotch heritage in the current Australia squad, and Cartwright - the likeliest of a clutch of contenders for the number six berth - originally hails from Zimbabwe. He is a batting all-rounder, and England will be hoping Smith needs him to bowl plenty of overs.

Tim Paine

• Age: 32
• Caps: 4
• Role: Wicketkeeper
• Batting: Right-hand
• Profile: Handed a shock recall over seven years after the last of his four Test caps to date. Career blighted by injuries and has kept wicket in just three Sheffield Shield games in the last two years but now gets an unexpected chance to add an Ashes win to the CV.

Peter Nevill

• Age: 32
• Caps: 17
• Role: Wicketkeeper
• Batting: Right-hand
• Profile: The wicketkeeper made his debut in Australia's thumping victory in the 2015 Lord's Test, and in an era of flux behind the stumps for the hosts, Nevill's solid batting had appeared to help him back into the reckoning after Matthew Wade's loss of form.

Mitchell Starc

• Age: 27
• Caps: 36
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Left-arm fast
• Profile: Warmed up for the series with two hat-tricks in the same Sheffield Shield match for New South Wales against Western Australia. Starc is potentially the star of this series, and England need to stop this left-arm Mitch having anything like the same impact his namesake Johnson did four years ago.

Pat Cummins

• Age: 24
• Caps: 5
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast
• Profile: Injuries have restricted him to just five Test caps since his brilliant debut against South Africa in Johannesburg six years ago. He has yet to play a home Test, in fact, and Australia's quickest bowler - a souped-up version of Mark Wood - will be doubling his career appearances if he stays fit till Sydney.

Josh Hazlewood

• Age: 26
• Caps: 31
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
• Profile: Australia's 2013-14 blue-chip seamer Ryan Harris has likened Hazlewood's role to his own, only he points out his successor is quicker. England's batsmen can expect Hazlewood to give them nothing - while Starc and Cummins try to wreak havoc.

Nathan Lyon

• Age: 29
• Caps: 69
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Off-break
• Profile: The former Adelaide groundsman has gone on to become Australia's greatest off-spinner. In his pomp as he approaches 30 - with his landmark birthday just before the first Test - Lyon's reliability has made him a crowd favourite.

Glenn Maxwell

• Age: 29
• Caps: 7
• Role: All-rounder
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Off-break
• Profile: Maxwell is a mercurial and enigmatic talent, at times unstoppable with his white-ball hitting but yet to establish himself in the Test arena. He is nonetheless a possible solution to Australia's problem number six position.

Jake Lehmann

• Age: 25
• Caps: 0
• Role: Middle-order batsman
• Batting: Left-hand
• Bowling: Slow left-arm
• Profile: The same applies to Lehmann, son of Australia coach Darren. The left-hander is in the form of his life in the Sheffield Shield, and may just have got his timing bang on at the start of an Ashes winter.

Jackson Bird

• Age: 30
• Caps: 8
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium
• Profile: The best bet as Australia's spare seamer, Bird is of the steady-away variety - with a thoroughly decent Test record. England faced him at Chester-le-Street when they closed out series victory in 2013.

Chadd Sayers

• Age: 30
• Caps: 0
• Role: Bowler
• Batting: Right-hand
• Bowling: Right-arm medium
• Profile: Another surprise selection in Australia's squad for the first two Tests, but the South Australia seamer looks to be at the back of the queue behind Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and first reserve Bird for a Test spot.