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This is the best time to find out where to watch England vs. Australia online today. With so much rain expected over the weekend, today is your best chance of seeing a full day's play and we can point you towards a free Ashes live stream. Australia will continue to bat this morning after racking up 299 for eight yesterday. England will want to finish them off ASAP and try and get ahead before the weekend begins.

The official UK Ashes live stream is on Sky Sports, which isn't the cheapest sports subscription. An Ashes live stream is showing for free in Australia, though. If you're not in Australia, you must use a VPN, or virtual private network, to access that streaming option like a local would. A VPN spoofs your device's location to match the streaming country of your choice; otherwise, the streaming site's geolocation detection will block you. 

The VPN we've highlighted below is one of the best in the business and super simple to set up, with no technical expertise required. It'll help unlock global streaming options and greatly enhance your privacy and general security across your devices, so you'll probably find a use for one long after the match.

The Ashes free live stream quick links: Watch England vs. Australia Ashes live stream for free from anywhere

The Ashes live stream is a premium event in most countries, meaning you'll need to sign up for a paid streaming-service package to watch the Ashes online. In the UK, you'll find Sky Sports has the rights to it, meaning you can opt for a Sky Sports bundle or perhaps the slightly cheaper Now TV route.

Not in Australia, though, because it's being shown for free on the 9Now channel and website. A geo-block will hit you if you try to watch from outside Australia. A VPN will get around that for you, though. Get and set your VPN location to Australia, create a free login for the 9Now website, and you're all set for the rest of the weekend's Ashes action.

Our preferred option out of all the best VPN providers is ExpressVPN, which comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee if you're unsatisfied.

How to watch the Ashes with a VPN Sign up for a VPN if you don't have one.Install it on the device you'll use to watch the match.Turn it on and set it to any Australian location.Go to 9Now.Create a free login and sign in.Watch the Ashes for free.Starts: Today 6 a.m. ET / 11 a.m. BST / 12 p.m. CET / 8 p.m. AEST

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

Brendan Griffiths

Senior Commerce Director




Brendan is the Senior Commerce Director at Insider Inc, having joined the company in early 2023. He oversees a wide range of our eCommerce content covering deals, popular sales events, How to Watch guides, and VPN articles. He also utilizes his extensive experience in SEO and Google algorithm updates to help improve content and rankings for a wide range of our shoppable buying guides, reviews, versus content, and more.
He has over 16 years of online journalism experience and a UK University degree in Journalism and Film & Media. Initially working as a freelance gaming journalist and eCommerce editor, he later joined Future Publishing in 2016 as their first-ever Deals Writer at TechRadar. Over the next six years, he became the Deals Editor at TechRadar, then Managing Editor of Hardware & eCommerce at GamesRadar before moving over to Future's mobile tech division to become the eCommerce Content Director for Android Central, iMore, and Windows Central.
Over the years, Brendan has written about a wide range of subjects. Be it covering game previews at GamesCom in Germany, listing the best Amazon Prime Day deals, reviewing gaming controllers, Kindles, and folding smartphones, or even international guides on buying a mattress - he's still quite annoyed that the UK and US have different sizes and names for them.
More recently, he's been covering international How to Watch guides on various sporting events like Formula 1, tennis, Champions League, cricket, or the hottest new movies and TV shows.  
Outside of work, you'll find Brendan trying to make a dent in various watchlists across streaming apps or playing games on his Series X or PS5, usually downloading (hoarding) yet more Game Pass games or grumbling about how open-world games should be scrapped for a solid 10-hour experience like the Uncharted series.

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