Josh Tongue walked out of the MCG dressing-room on Friday evening, glanced at the visitors’ honours board and let out a low whistle. Under a fresh coat of gold lettering sat his figures, 5 for 45, right below Jasprit Bumrah’s previous entries. “It’s what dreams are made of,” he said, still cradling the Mullagh Medal.
The Worcestershire quick is the first England bowler to claim player-of-the-match in an Ashes Test on Australian soil since Dean Headley in 1998. A whole generation of seamers – Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, James Anderson, Stuart Broad – never quite managed it, so Tongue’s seven wickets across the Test felt significant.
Headley’s own moment came when Tongue was barely a year old, a nervy Melbourne chase in which Australia fell 12 runs short. Coincidentally, England’s target on Saturday was also 175. The link between the two Worcestershire products was not lost on the 28-year-old.
Technique is part of the story. Like Bumrah, Tongue releases the ball from beyond the perpendicular; if you imagine a clock face, his arm points towards ten or eleven rather than the conventional twelve or one. That angle sends the ball curving back into right-handers, luring them into strokes they might otherwise leave and magnifying any swing or seam.
Bumrah still sets the standard – an economy rate under three in 52 Tests – while Tongue, eight Tests in, leaks a touch over four an over. Yet their strike-rates are nearly identical: 42.6 balls per wicket for Bumrah, 39.6 for Tongue. It is early days, but the comparison is not outlandish.
His first scalp of the match, Jake Weatherald down the leg side, was a gift. The next two showcased why Ben Stokes keeps coming back to him. Tongue pitched the ball up – something Brydon Carse had avoided earlier – and persuaded Marnus Labuschagne into an ambitious drive. Next ball he nipped one back sharply to castle Steven Smith. It was the fifth time in five attempts he has removed Smith in professional cricket: once in the Championship, twice at Lord’s in 2023, once in The Hundred, and now here.
“He bowled nicely,” Smith said afterwards. “He gets above the perpendicular, shapes the ball back into you with that angle, and draws you into playing, I suppose – similar to Scotty Boland in a way. [They have] similar release points and angles they create. He’s a good bowler, bowled really nicely in this game, and he’s done a pretty good job every time he’s had the opportunity to play for England.”
Stokes twice asked Tongue for long spells: eight overs first time round, then 11 unchanged on the fourth morning – eight before lunch, three after. Given the pacer’s shoulder problems, which nearly forced retirement in 2022, some might have hesitated. Not Tongue. “Adrenaline kicked in,” he explained, shrugging.
Stokes had limited options as the pitch flattened and the Kookaburra softened, so Tongue’s willingness mattered. Even with the field spread to save boundaries, he found enough movement to keep Australia honest, eventually ending with match figures of 7 for 104.
Numbers aside, there was a sense of timing. England’s attack is in transition: Anderson will be 43 next summer, Broad has already exited, and fitness clouds hang over Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. Tongue, tall, brisk and able to swing it late, suddenly looks central to the medium-term plan.
Former England quick Alex Tudor felt the same. “He’s got that mix of height and skid,” Tudor said on radio. “Not many bowlers are comfortable going full at the MCG, but he trusts his movement. That’s what separates him.”
There are still areas to tighten. Four-plus an over is expensive in Test cricket, and Bumrah-level control won’t arrive overnight. Tongue knows it. Friends say he spent much of last winter fine-tuning his run-up, hoping a smoother approach would take strain off his shoulder and improve accuracy.
The early evidence suggests progress, and with tours to Pakistan and New Zealand looming, the selectors are unlikely to look elsewhere. Bowling coach Neil Killeen has already spoken about building his workloads gradually, mindful of the two surgeries that nearly ended his career.
For now, though, the moment belongs to Tongue: a Mullagh Medal, an honours-board entry, and a place alongside Headley in England’s Ashes folklore. Not bad for a lad who, three years ago, wondered if he would ever bowl pain-free again.
