Don Bradman led Australia on its 1938 Ashes tour. England and Australia won a Test each, with two of the other Tests drawn and the third game of the series, scheduled for Manchester, abandoned without a ball being bowled. As holders, Australia thus retained The Ashes. Wally Hammond turned amateur to skipper England.

The main drama in the series was in the last Test at the Oval. The hosts needed to win to square the series and did so in style with opener Len Hutton batting for more than 13 hours in compiling a record score of 364. Australia could not match England's then record score of an imposing 903-7 declared to lose by an innings and 579 runs.

In all 30 first-class matches were played, and the Australian team won 15 of them losing only to England and H. D. G. Leveson-Gower's XI. Len Hutton scored 473 runs in the series (2 centuries) in the 3 Tests that he played and Bradman made 434 runs with 3 centuries. Bill O'Reilly was the top wicket taker with 22 victims in the series.

Key Performers

• Don Bradman (Australia): Scored 434 runs in 6 innings at an average of 108.50.  
• Bill Brown (Australia): Top-scored for Australia with 512 runs at an average of 73.14.  
• Stan McCabe (Australia): Contributed 362 runs at an average of 45.25.  
• Bill O’Reilly (Australia): Led the bowling attack with 22 wickets at an average of 27.72.  
• Ken Farnes (England): Claimed 17 wickets at an average of 34.17.  
• Hedley Verity (England): Took 14 wickets at an average of 25.28.  
• Leonard Hutton (England): Accumulated 473 runs at an average of 118.25.  
• Wally Hammond (England): Scored 379 runs at an average of 54.14.

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