Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy better than Ashes 2005? R Ashwin, Monty Panesar weigh in

It’s human nature to compare, and the recently concluded, thrilling India vs England Test series is no exception, with former cricketers comparing it to the iconic 2005 Ashes. Legendary Ravichandran Ashwin has claimed that the 2025 five-match Test series between India and England that ended with a scoreline of 2-2 on Monday after the visitors won the final match at Oval on the last day was even better than the Ashes 2005.

England’s 2-1 Ashes 2005 win was their first since 1986-87, but the on-field drama, confrontations, and close matches made it a legendary contest.

Ashwin: IND vs ENG better series than Ashes 2005

Ashwin, who retired from Test cricket last year, feels the 2025 India vs England series is “slightly better than even the 2005 Ashes” as the latest series had a number of imperfections.

“A lot of people are comparing this series with the 2005 Ashes, but I think this series was slightly better than even the 2005 Ashes – because there was so much more imperfection, from both sides,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

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“If you look at that Australian team, there was Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, you had Michael Kasprowicz, Shaun Tait. From this side [England] you had Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, you had Ashley Giles. There was a lot of experience in the bowling attacks. There was experience in the batting too. There was a lot of hard-fought cricket, where you couldn’t see a lot of mistakes. It was hard-fought.”

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Explaining the imperfections, Ashwin said that the way players fought back on numerous occasions made the series a riveting affair.

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“In this series, there were a lot of mistakes,” Ashwin added. “But the young players have corrected their mistakes and gotten better through the series. You had somebody like KL Rahul who’s not put a foot wrong in the series. Then you had somebody like a Rishabh Pant or Shubman Gill, who made errors – both got run out once – they played some poor shots and got out at the crucial moments.

“In the bowling too, Mohammed Siraj has had some down spells, Prasidh [Krishna] has had some ordinary spells. England have bowled poorly, but have fought back through Ben Stokes. So there has been a lot of imperfection. There was a lot of perfection in the 2005 Ashes, but we got to see a lot of imperfection in this series.

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“And that’s the beauty of it. Players corrected their vulnerabilities, and made this series like a festival for us. [For] anyone who paid money to go watch the match, no one would say they didn’t have their money’s worth. Twenty-five days of riveting cricket, and I could give anything to watch this series, I have not missed a moment.”

Monty Panesar compares IND vs ENG to Ashes 2005

Former England spinner Monty Panesar felt it was the “most exciting series” since the 2005 Ashes.

“It’s been a famous victory for India. They played brilliant, brilliant cricket. And yesterday, we kind of thought when Joe Root and Harry Brook were batting that this was out of their reach. But the conditions this morning obviously favoured India with the seam positions, and the key was that they didn’t take the new ball. And with the old ball, Siraj was amazing, and Krishna, as well, got that length a bit fuller. And it’s a famous victory, probably the most exciting series since 2005, between England and Australia,” Panesar told IANS.