The 2005 Ashes series saw Kevin Pietersen and Simon Jones help England conquer the greatest side of the era. Jon Hotten, co-author of The Test – Jones’ definitive account of the series – introduces the memories of their glorious summer. First published in 2015.

The power of those 54 high-summer days remains, even though the players are slipping away now. Only Ian Bell of England and Michael Clarke of Australia are still in their respective Test teams; Kevin Pietersen, Marcus Trescothick, Geraint Jones, Shaun Tait and Paul Collingwood actively playing, but to watch the highlights of the series – still a perennial rain-delay favourite – is to be jerked back with an immediacy and intensity that defies passing time. The emotions it stirs are somehow still current.

Simon Jones and Kevin Pietersen were tyros then, 26 and 24 respectively, and their fates would diverge radically after that summer. Each would produce performances that tilted the series England’s way, and both provided an aggressive intensity that helped to shove the Australian winning machine off course. Pietersen would go on to play some of the great innings of the modern era during his lightning rod of a career. Jones would never play international cricket again. But from the moment Pietersen joined the Test match dressing room, forcing his way past the retiring Graham Thorpe with a knock of quite stunning quality in the ODI at Bristol, the pair struck up a friendship that endures.

Talk us through your series-clinching innings on that final day. Was your attack on Brett Lee – when you blitzed him for 35 runs off 13 balls after lunch – premeditated?

KP: I remember waking up on the final day and at breakfast reading ‘England need one hero today’ in the paper. I just thought to myself, ‘Jeez, how amazing would that be if that was me’. Nothing in my innings was premeditated – it was all instinct. People say you’ve got to practise that and do this… I can tell you something right now, that’s a load of nonsense. When someone’s bowling 95mph, it’s all instinct. And it could all have gone wrong. I was just lucky enough to take Brett Lee on and a couple of top edges went into the stand. I’ve had a couple of instances in my career when the pull shot has gone wrong, I’ve been caught at square-leg or fine-leg and been hammered. It went in my favour that day, and I’m not going to stand here and say it was premeditated. Nonsense. Instinct won it for me that day.

Simon, you were with the team in the changing room for days three, four and five. What was it like watching Kevin’s innings unfold?

SJ: I’ve never wanted someone to succeed more than I did Kev that day. He’d shown glimpses of what he could do and taken it to the Aussies but here he took the game by the scruff of the neck. Brett Lee was bowling 95mph and he was just hooking him into the stands. It was brilliant to see the genuine delight at what he’d achieved against the best team that’s ever played the game. A ridiculous innings.

The aftermath

The post-match celebrations have gone down in Ashes folklore. Were you all as badly behaved as we’re led to believe?

KP: Obviously we had a bit to drink, but we weren’t as boisterous or as silly as the journalists liked to write up! I mean, that pissing in the garden in Downing Street… I only heard about that afterwards, I never saw it. I don’t know if it happened. Great story, though.

SJ: That trip to Downing Street was probably one of the worst ideas the ECB have ever had! Twelve drunk cricketers who weren’t going to go to bed going down to 10 Downing Street the day after? It just didn’t make sense, but we weren’t going to let it ruin our night – we’d worked hard for that. It was just a great feeling that we were being appreciated, though. The amount of people that turned up that day, it blew us away. There were 30 or 40,000 people at Trafalgar Square. It was like a dream.

First published in 2015.