Wounded England must salvage more than pride in MCG Boxing Day Ashes Test
The world famous Boxing Day Test awaits England’s beaten cricketers and we are about to discover whether the mighty coliseum that is the Melbourne Cricket Ground becomes their arena of the unwell; whether pride can be salvaged or it is just another stepping stone for Australia in their pursuit of an Ashes whitewash.Last year a record 373,691 spectators passed through the turnstiles across five days as Australia overcame India in a slow-burn thriller.This fourth Ashes Test was tipped to top that remarkable figure potentially but that will hinge on it similarly going the distance.It also needs the locals to be energised still by a series that has already been won by their team – even if simply beating the old enemy is usually enough.England lasted just seven sessions here four years ago, the match settled before lunch on day three when Scott Boland ran through them on debut like a bull down the streets of Pamplona.
The statue that Mark Howard called for on commentary is yet to materialise but memories of England’s gory innings defeat come flooding back when walking through Yarra Park to the ground.That was also a rare live Boxing Day Ashes Test, albeit only because the pandemic forced the series to start later.This time England are 3-0 down after seeing their challenge disintegrate in just 11 days and they are playing for a combination of pride, World Test Championship points and, as Rob Key and Brendon McCullum have both admitted in recent days, potentially jobs.Going by some of their post-match comments after the 82-run win in Adelaide, Australia’s hunger for 5-0 is real.Achieving this would say even more about their resilience.
Having battled with high-profile absentees throughout the series, Pat Cummins is now out for the remainder – back rested after that remarkable one-Test cameo – and likewise Nathan Lyon with a torn hamstring.For England the test of resilience will chiefly be between the ears and may be instructive as to whether McCullum’s “horse-whispering” is still registering with his charges.Key, the team director, still believes in his man, calling him a “bloody good coach” on Tuesday.Although having stuck everything on him last year with a contract extension, he could hardly say otherwise.There may well be a change of personnel among them.
Given they have shaken up the bowling attack already in this series, Key slightly gave the game away here,Without naming names, but while holding his hands up to the myriad things that have gone wrong so far on the trip, he admitted to wondering whether changes to the side should have come sooner,The sight of Ollie Pope doing laps of the vast MCG outfield on Tuesday while others were working in the nets pointed to a tap on the shoulder here, his tour having slightly unravelled since a deceptively calm 46 on the opening day in Perth,Though a willing conscript to the team’s attacking mantra, the 27-year-old seems the obvious one to make way from a faltering top three that has in turn heaped pressure on the middle order,Unless England bring in an extra bowler – not their style so far, despite what this asks of Ben Stokes, physically – this points to a return for Jacob Bethell, a year on from a promising debut in New Zealand but with little form to speak of since.
It represents a huge task for a 22-year-old still awaiting his maiden first-class century, even before factoring in a 90,000-strong crowd,“He is going to be a very good player,” said Key, without confirming Bethell’s spot,“He is a very good player,And I have no issue with him being able to go out and play a match-winning innings in an Ashes Test for us, if that’s Boxing Day,I wouldn’t be worried about that.
Do I think it’d be easy? No.”England should have invested in Bethell during the Test summer by making the switch with Pope sooner.As it is, despite making his first senior hundred in a one-day international against South Africa, his season was largely a wasted one.Key made a passing remark about a lack of opportunities at Warwickshire, which, given he released the left-hander for just one County Championship game, may trigger a fair bit of chuntering at Edgbaston.Either way, it would represent another punt by a regime with a gambler’s streak that has started to see fewer and fewer payouts.
No Cummins is unlikely to mean any let-up, not least with Boland back on his home ground, the impossibly limber Mitchell Starc set to push through once more, and the fast outswing of Jhye Richardson given a chance to join them.With McCullum frustrated that England were so cautious against Lyon during the first innings in Adelaide, only bringing out the sweep in the second, one area to exploit could be his replacement.Todd Murphy, another off-spinner, was attacked by them during the 2023 Ashes – even if that series seems a long time ago now.
Pat Cummins out of rest of Ashes series as Australia make two changes for MCG Test
Australia coach Andrew McDonald has revealed the extreme risk selectors took with captain Pat Cummins, who starred in the third Ashes Test in Adelaide on his return to the side, but has now been ruled out for the rest of the series.McDonald and the other selectors named a 15-player squad on Tuesday for the Boxing Day Test, which includes back-up pace trio Jhye Richardson, Brendan Doggett and second Test hero Michael Neser, as well as Victorian off-spinner Todd Murphy as a replacement for the injured Nathan Lyon.The coach said although Cummins “pulled up fine” in his first match since July following a serious back injury, it was not worth exposing him to possible injury again given the series has now been won.“We were taking on some risk [with his return] but we’ve now won the series and that was the goal,” the coach said. “To position him for further risk and jeopardise him long term is not something that we want to do, and Pat’s really comfortable with that
Rob Key to investigate England’s ‘stag do’ drinking habits on Noosa mid-Ashes break
Rob Key has defended England’s mid-tour break in Noosa but confirmed he will look into reports that excessive drinking by players in between the second and third Ashes Tests turned it into a “glorified stag do”. Key was speaking before unverified social media footage emerged of what appears to be Ben Duckett looking worse for wear during the team’s stay in the Queensland resort town.Sitting 3-0 down to Australia, the Ashes having gone, the team director, Key, has followed the head coach, Brendon McCullum, in stating that his future now rests in the hands of senior figures at the England and Wales Cricket Board.Among the questions that will be asked in a post-series review is whether the four-night break on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast best prepared them for the pivotal Adelaide Test. According to the BBC, a number of players spent six days drinking, having begun after the eight-wicket defeat in Brisbane
Sport stars ‘deeply concerned’ playing fields will be lost under planning reforms
Sports playing fields and facilities in England are at risk of being built over en masse with devastating consequences for local communities, sports stars and governing bodies have warned.The former England footballer Jill Scott along with Olympic gold medallists Mo Farah, Alex Yee and Matthew Pinsent, are among 88 signatories to an open letter saying they are “deeply concerned” about proposed government planning reforms, and say they would hit poorest communities hardest.The letter, which has also been signed by the Football Association, the RFU, the LTA and UK Athletics, comes amid proposals to end Sport England’s statutory right to be consulted on housing developments on playing fields as part of the government’s plans to hit its target of building 1.5m homes.“We are deeply concerned that proposed planning reforms could remove the statutory protections that help safeguard England’s playing fields and sports facilities,” the letter warns
Enchantingly old-school Mr Vango can thrill with Welsh Grand National win
When jumping fans of any age talk about a “proper, old-fashioned steeplechaser”, they have a strapping colossus of a horse in mind, with the strength to keep jumping and powering on through the deepest of winter ground when lesser rivals have cried enough. A horse like Pendil or The Dikler in the 1970s, Desert Orchid or Carvill’s Hill a decade or so later, or Denman lugging top weight to victory in the Hennessy – when it still was the Hennessy, back in 2009.Or, in the here and now, a horse like Mr Vango, the second-favourite for Saturday’s Welsh Grand National at Chepstow. Even in a year when Harry Redknapp has a live runner in the King George VI Chase at Kempton a day earlier, a win for Mr Vango this weekend would quite possibly be the most popular and heartwarming result of the entire festive racing programme.Everything about Sara Bradstock’s nine-year-old is defiantly, and enchantingly, old-school, from his massive frame and engine to the amount of time he has been given to develop and mature
McCullum admitting failure of his methods was gobsmacking but England are learning | Mark Ramprakash
Finally, in the last two days of the third Test with the series already basically lost, England stood up. They have been on a hell of a journey over 11 days of Test cricket, and now – too late – they are getting somewhere.They have reminded me of some of the students who have passed through the school where I teach: they get into the upper sixths and they’re first-team cricketers, the big boys, very confident, dominating the team, playing good cricket, think they’ve cracked the code. Then they have a gap year and go travelling, and suddenly they realise there’s a whole world out there, that life can be tough and things can be done differently. Out of their comfort zone they can mature rapidly as young men and as people
Six balls in Perth to Harry Brook’s drop: 10 moments that decided the Ashes
Lilac Hill warmup, Alex Carey’s glovework and Pat Cummins’ control of Joe Root are key parts of the storyIt’s not a complete exaggeration to say that Australia won the 2025-26 Ashes on 15 October 2024. That was when Cricket Australia announced the schedule for the series: Perth first, Brisbane second. Starting the series on the bounciest, most Kryptonicious pitches in Australia – and the only major venues where England haven’t won a Test since 1986-87 – was a masterstroke, especially as Australia also had a day-night advantage at the Gabba. By the time England reached more batting-friendly climes, many of their batters already had scrambled brains.We may never know the whole truth about whether England could have used the Waca in Perth ahead of the first Test
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