Darren Gough makes bold Ashes prediction and names one player who holds key to England victory

Ladbrokes ambassador Darren Gough gives his prediction for the Ashes 2025 ahead of the first Test and names the one player who is key to England's hopes of a victory in Australia.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥-𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐗𝐈 🏏
*that isn’t actually all-time!

We set Darren Gough, Steve Harmison & Marcus North the task of building their all-time combined Ashes XI - but only from players they played with or against! @DGoughie | @Harmy611 | @Marcus_North pic.twitter.com/FEYiP9RQOY

— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) November 20, 2025

Ashes 2025 Series prediction: I think Australia win 3-2

I don't know which way to turn when it comes to the Ashes right now. It all starts in Perth, and I think that's such an important game - not just because it's the first one, but because the second one is a day and night Test.

That second Test in Brisbane, for me, is a toss of a coin; luck will play a huge part in it, in terms of when you're going to be bowling, what the conditions are going to be like.

So if you don't get off to a good start in that first Test, and you're on the wrong end of it in the second - which could easily happen - all of a sudden you could be 2-0 down and it's as good as over.

England’s Top Runscorer prediction: Harry Brook leads the charge

We could arguably call Joe Root the greatest ever England player, but if he comes back from Australia this time without a century to his name, it means two things: people are going to question that greatest of all time claim, and also it means we're going to have to see Matthew Hayden running around the SCG naked - which I'm not too keen on seeing, I must admit.

He looks like Buzz Lightyear as it is, imagine seeing him running around the SCG naked, if Rooty doesn't get 100?

I've got tattoos everywhere, I'm England through and through, and so it pains me to say it, but I'm going to go for a 3-2 Australia win. 

A lot is going to depend on that first Test, and how it goes, but it kills me to say I think Australia will win the series. The one person who could change that scoreline, for me, is Harry Brook. I think if Harry Brook has a good Ashes, we win it 3-2. 

Ashes Mind Games: What It’s Really Like in Australia

Mind games play a big part when you go to Australia - you get stick all the while you're out there. One of the guys I watched on TV while I was growing up was Boonie [David Boon]. The way I went about things, no matter who I was playing for or who we were playing against, I always picked out one player from the other team, and I'd say to myself 'I'm having him'.

It might have been something they'd done in the warm-up, or during the game, and in 1994, we played against Australia, and Boonie was obviously a massive player for Australia in the late 80s, but I just decided I was having him. It was my first Ashes wicket, in Brisbane, and that was it.

Anyway, I went out to bat - and I always thought I was quite friendly; when I hadn't got a ball in my hand, I liked to talk to people. So I'm going out to bat, I turn around to Boonie and just go "Hiya, mate, you alright?" And the best sledge from him wasn't even anything he said to me; he just stared me down, his face never changed, he had those 'tache handlebars, and I just s*** myself.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰! 🏏

Ahead of this week’s first test down under, and with the offer of some free pastries, we got Darren Gough, Steve Harmison & Marcus North together to chat all things Ashes cricket!@DGoughie | @Harmy611 | @Marcus_North pic.twitter.com/T2IGW1HleE

— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) November 17, 2025

I was stood there, knowing he was behind me which made it worse, because I could feel him there, to my side. Then I could hear him grunting, and then you hear all of the Australian team at it with their sledging; "champagne cricket on a beer budget", and all of that crap... they'd all be chirping around us - "Tuffers [Phil Tufnell], lend us your brain, we want to build an idiot." 

Stuff like that... but on that day I couldn't get it out of my mind while I was out there, that Boonie didn't speak to me. For the whole series, he never spoke a word to me.

And then, at the end of the series, he was the nicest bloke in the world to me! He bought me a beer, we had a chat, all of that... I just thought 'oh, he can speak then!'

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