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Jonathan Doidge takes a look at the best Ashes betting odds on this day-night encounter.
Jonathan DoidgeWednesday 03 December 2025 19:25 GMT
England suffered a disappointing opening defeat to Australia (PA Wire)Ashes 2025 2nd Test Betting Tips
- Result: Australia to win – 4pts win @ 8/15 (Bet365)
- Top Australia batter: Marnus Labuschagne - 1pt win @ 15/4 (William Hill)
- Top Australia bowler: Mitchell Starc – 3pts win @ 7/4 (Bet365)
- Top England batter: Harry Brook – 1pt win @ 15/4 (Bet365)
- Man of the Match: Mitchell Starc – 1pt win @ 8/1 (Bet365)
After a week and more to lick their wounds, England go back into action on Thursday looking to level the Ashes series in the second Test in Brisbane.
Before we get stuck into this particular match, I think it’s worth a recap as to where we are right now, following the series opener, from a betting perspective.
In the first Test we drew positive returns from a 3pt win on Australia at 8/11; a 1pt win on Mitchell Starc at 9/4 to be the top Australia bowler; plus a 1pt win on Travis Head to be the top Australia batter at 9/2. It was a profitable match for followers of those selections.
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I must admit I was gobsmacked that Travis Head was not chosen as player of the match (advised at 11/1) with the only hundred of the contest and I think we were pretty hard done by when it went to Starc who, admittedly, bowled superbly.
Into the bargain, the Aussies winning set us out on the right footing towards them winning the Ashes (4pts win at 8/13 advised); plus Travis Head was tipped at 14/1 and 4/1 respectively to be the player of the series for Australia and also the top runscorer for the hosts.
It wasn’t a bad start either for our 0.5pts win bet on Ben Stokes to be England’s top bowler for the series. Harry Brook didn’t top score for England but he did get a half century and that will also help as the series unfolds, having tipped him to be England’s leading batter. There are no premature celebrations here, just a look at where we’re at.
Ashes 2025 Australia vs England 2nd Test: Baggy Greens to extend their lead
And so, on to Brisbane. Alarm bells will already be ringing loud and clear for England supporters, who watched on as their team binned a great opportunity in the first Test and they now move on to a stage where the hosts are experts, compared to Stokes’ men.
I do think England will come back hard here. For reasons known only to themselves, they play better when they have a point to prove. They were unceremoniously ‘bagged’ by some of my media colleagues and fans alike after that day two capitulation in Perth and so often, when you poke that stick in the hornets’ nest, the return sting can feel very painful.
Expect determination, resolve and possibly even more bloody-mindedness from Stokes’ squad but the facts are thus: Australia have won 13 of the 14 pink ball Tests they’ve played. That is a phenomenal record. England, meanwhile, have won just two of the seven they’ve contested and lost all three they’ve played in Australia.
The heart says England will give this a real go but they’re missing their quickest bowler, Mark Wood, which is to their detriment although the Aussies also appear likely to be missing skipper Pat Cummins again.
However, in Mitchell Starc, they have the fast bowler with the best record in day-night Test cricket. In addition, England have not won at the Gabba since Mike Gatting’s Ashes-winning tour of 1986-87, having drawn two and lost seven of the nine Ashes Tests played there since.
We must bet with our heads and, even though when I arrive in ‘Oz’ in a couple of weeks for the third and fourth Tests I’d love it to be 1-1, unfortunately the old grey matter says it’s another Australia win and that I could be doing it tough.
Ashes Betting Tip 1: Result - Australia to win – 4pts win @ 8/15 (Bet365)
2025 Ashes Australia vs England 2nd Test: Will Labuschagne fire at the Gabba?
It’s a given that, as long as he is playing, Steve Smith is going to be somewhere near being the favourite for top batter and he’ll often come up trumps. He has a great record at the Gabba, averaging 54.47 in 19 Test innings there, including four centuries.
As you know, I’ve gone for Travis Head as the Aussies’ top scorer in the series and his average in Brisbane is 57.88 in six Tests (nine innings), including two tons and two fifties.
He is again close to the top of my list for this match but I am going to side with Marnus Labuschagne here.
The Queenslander will be on his home patch and he, too, averages more than 50 (51.00 to be precise) there. He’s had a tricky time of late but he put a few on the board in Perth.
He’s certainly been enjoying himself at the Gabba in the current Australian domestic season, with two List A hundreds, plus one in the Sheffield Shield. At 9/2, he looks a sporting play to small stakes.
Ashes Betting Tip 2: Top Australia batter - Marnus Labuschagne 1pt win @ 15/4 (William Hill)
2025 Ashes Australia vs England 2nd Test: Starc to strike again
The only ground on which Mitchell Starc has taken more Test wickets than his 50 at Brisbane is the 55 he’s bagged at the Adelaide Oval. After his start to the series (ten wickets in Perth), that feels ominous for England.
Simply put, whether he’s bowling in the day or under floodlights, he loves bowling here. He’ll be cock-a-hoop after his first Test efforts and, for reasons known only to him, his speeds are actually quicker at this venue than any other.
Admittedly, he’s a short price to be the pick of the Aussies at the Gabba but he is a very worthy favourite and, unlike if I was standing at the other end with a bat in my hand, I’m not going to back off.
With most cricket betting sites going 6/1 or 13/2 about Starc repeating his first Test heroics, I think bet365’s 8/1 looks cracking value. I realise that winning back-to-back individual awards is pretty rare but given his record here, as cited above, he’s the ‘tried and tested’ and is very hard to look past.
Ashes Betting Tip 3: Top Australia bowler - Mitchell Starc – 3pts win @ 7/4 (Bet365)
Ashes Betting Tip 4: Man of the match - Mitchell Starc – 1pt win at 8/1 (Bet365)
2025 Ashes Australia vs England 2nd Test: Will Brook respond for tourists?
As much as I would love Joe Root to score his first hundred in a Test in Australia, he is a very skinny price to emerge as England’s top scorer in the match.
Of course, he could still top score without making a hundred but his record at the Gabba reads two half centuries in six knocks there and for him a below par average of 36.60. At the prices, that screams ‘no’.
Having said he looked vulnerable going into the first Test, Ollie Pope proved me wrong by top scoring for the visitors and in view of that, the best price of 15/2 on offer about him repeating the feat in Brisbane does look of some value, especially when you consider that the hapless Zak Crawley is just 7/1.
Either way, I am sticking with my first Test play of Harry Brook, who doesn’t possess the baggage of some other teammates (Pope, for example, made just 39 runs in his only Test on this ground) and his style of play might be better suited to both day and night conditions.
At nearly 4/1, I am sticking with him, having seen him post some runs in that exhilarating, chancy, first knock of the tour.
Ashes Betting Tip 5: Top England batter - Harry Brook – 1pt win @ 15/4 (Bet365)
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