Chapman, who had replaced Carr as England captain in the fifth Test in the 1926 series, continued his captaincy. Ryder was to captain Australia in the 1928 -1929 Ashes series.

Brisbane made its debut as a Test venue in the first test. More importantly, Donald Bradman made his debut in this match. England batted first and piled on the runs, with Hendren scoring another century (169) and Harold Larwood scored 70 on his first visit to Australia. With such a big lead, England were buoyant and Larwood returned his best test figures of 6 - 32 on what was a perfect batting pitch. Bradman in his first innings scored 18 and was out lbw to Tate. This was the first time Jardine and Bradman were to meet on a cricket field; little did anyone know what was in store two series later in 1932 - 1933. England then scored another 342 runs and declared knowing they would not loose the match. Overnight rain then made the wicket sticky and Australia were dismissed for 66 runs in their second innings. White took 4 wickets in 6.3 overs at a cost of only 7 runs. The 675 run win was England's biggest run victory.

Donald Bradman was unfortunately dropped for the second Test in Sydney. Australia batted first and made 253, Geary taking 5 wickets for 35 runs. When Hobbs came in to bat, there was a record crowd of 58, 456 in Sydney to watch him; he fell for 40 runs. Hammond scored 251 runs in a record England total of 636. Despite centuries by Hendry and Woodfull, England were left with only 15 runs to get. Geary and Tate opened the batting but both fell to Hendry two runs short of victory. England scored the two runs required without further loss and won by 8 wickets.

Australia needed to win the third Test at Melbourne and recalled Bradman. Ryder and Kippax scored centuries and Bradman scored his first 50 in test cricket as Australia scored a first innings total of 397. In reply, Hammond became the first player to score back to back double hundreds in test cricket and England scored 417. In their second innings, Bradman scored his maiden century along with Woodfull's 107 to leave England requiring 332 to win. Rain came down and made the wicket almost unplayable, Australia were in the driving seat. No one told the English however as Hobbs and Sutcliffe produced some of the best cricket seen in such circumstances. They took their time until the wicket eased, by which time England were well on their way to victory. Sutcliffe scored another century and England went on to win by 3 wickets.

Adelaide saw a new name in Australian cricket come of age. At 19 years and 152 days old, Archie Jackson became the youngest player to score a century. Not only that but his 164 was scored on debut. Hammond scored a century in both innings and shared in a stand of 262 for the third wicket with Douglas Jardine (98). Needing 349 runs to win, Australia came very close thanks to another solid batting display from the team (Bradman scored his half century before he was run out on 58) bur ended the match 13 runs short.

Hobbs became the oldest player to score a test century at 46 years and 82 days old. Hobbs scored 142 and Leyland scoring 137 in his first match against Australia, saw England reached a total of 519. In reply both Bradman and Woodfull scored centuries and Australia closed only 28 runs behind. Wall on debut then took 5 wicket and restricted England to 257 runs. Needing 286 to win, they made the required total with 5 wickets to spare.

Hammond's 905 runs in a series was a record at the time, and Hobbs became the first player to pass 5,000 runs in test cricket during his second innings. England retained the ashes winning the series 4 games to 1.