Melbourne Cricket Ground head curator Matthew Page confessed he was “in a state of shock” after 20 wickets fell on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test, admitting that the pitch was heavily in favour of the bowlers.

Page opted to leave 10mm of grass — up from 7mm last year when Australia famously beat India late on day five. But the decision backfired as 36 wickets fell in just 142 overs across six sessions and England went on to defeat Australia by four wickets late on day two on Saturday.

“I was in a state of shock after the first day,” Page told the press at the MCG on Sunday.

“We’re obviously disappointed it’s gone two days. We produced a Test that was captivating, but it hasn’t gone long enough. We’ll learn from that and make sure we get it right next year.” “I’ve never been involved in a Test match like it and hopefully I’m not involved in a Test match like it again.” Despite winning the match, England’s first Test win in Australia since 2011, captain Ben Stokes strongly criticised the overwhelmingly bowler-friendly pitch, saying such conditions elsewhere in the world would unleash “hell”.

“We know this hasn’t gone as we planned. We’re trying to balance that contest between bat and ball throughout, over the four or five days, to provide that captivating Test for all,” Page said.

Batters from both sides struggled with significant sideways movement generated by the wobble seam. Page said the extra grass was left on the pitch due to the hot weather forecast for days three and four.

“We left it longer because we knew we were going to get (hot) weather at the back end that we knew we needed our grass (for). You look back at it and you go, ‘well, it’s favoured the bowlers too much days one and two’.

“If that doesn’t happen, then we set ourselves up really good for day three and four,” Page added.

More than 90,000 fans were expected for the sold-out third day. But the early finish, the second in the series, is likely to cost Cricket Australia (CA) over AUD 10 million.

While several former players slammed the pitch, Australia opener Travis Head, whose second-innings 46 was the highest score of the match, he felt for Page and his team.

“I feel for him. It’s bloody tough. You leave 1 or 2mm on with high-quality bowling, you find yourself short, or you take 2 or 3mm with high-quality batting and you leave yourself the other way,” Head said.

“Everyone wants to see someone win. Everyone wants to see wickets. No one wants to see a bloke get 300. There needs to be a balance, and sometimes we’re going to see the balance, like last week (the third Test in Adelaide) err to the batters, and some weeks we’re going to see it err to the bowlers.”

Australia won’t attempt to replace injured Nathan Lyon with another spin bowler for the fourth Ashes test against England and will go into Friday’s start of the match with a 12-man, pace-heavy squad.

After Lyon suffered a long-term hamstring injury in the Ashes-clinching win in Adelaide and later underwent surgery, offspinner Todd Murphy was called into the squad. But with the MCG pitch showing plenty of grass, Australia opted to leave Murphy out when it named its squad Thursday.

Captain Steve Smith will wait until the toss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday before confirming a starting XI.

England lost each of the first three tests to allow Australia to retain the Ashes in just 11 days of on-field action.

It’s unusual for an Australian team not to select a spinner at the MCG, a place where Shane Warne and Lyon have had success.

“A lot of the wickets we’re playing on at present are certainly more seam-friendly than spin-friendly,” Smith said on Thursday.

“Last week (in Adelaide) was an anomaly; we saw some rough and we saw Nathan come in to play big-time.

“It’s a tricky one. You’ve just got to play what surface you’re presented with, and this one out here looks like it’s going to offer a fair bit of assistance for the seam bowlers.” Joining Lyon and captain Pat Cummins on the sidelines are Josh Inglis, with fast bowlers Jhye Richardson, Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser included.

Left-handed veteran Usman Khawaja was preferred to Inglis after making 82 and 40 in the third test in Adelaide. Richardson is in contention to play his first test in more than four years after a bad run of injuries.

Doggett and Neser played in the second test in Brisbane, but were left out in Adelaide when Cummins and Lyon returned.

England named its team on Wednesday with the big news the loss of star bowler Jofra Archer for the rest of the series, including the fifth and final test starting Jan. 4 in Sydney.

Australia squad: Travis Head, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (captain), Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Brendan Doggett, Scott Boland.

England team: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue. (AP) PDS PDS

Defiant England coach Brendon McCullum brushed off concerns Sunday (December 14, 2025) that his job was on the line heading into the third Test against Australia, while admitting the team have been “nowhere near” their best.

The tourists were crushed in the first two Ashes Tests in Perth and Brisbane by eight wickets and only a win at Adelaide Oval this week will be enough to keep the five-match series alive.

McCullum confirmed they would stick with the same top seven, keeping under-fire Ollie Pope at number three rather than bring in Jacob Bethell.

“Knee-jerk reactions and chopping and changing settled batting line-ups is not really our way,” he said.

“We know we haven’t got enough runs so far in the series. But for us to go on and win the series it’s not about throwing out what’s been successful for us over the past few years.”

England’s lack of fight and questionable preparations have drawn scrutiny, while McCullum’s claim that they “trained too much” prior to Brisbane was met with disbelief by former greats.

A decision for the team to lounge on the beach in tourist playground Noosa this week before heading to Adelaide was also panned.

But McCullum was unfazed, dismissing talk that his job could be threatened by another defeat.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t really bother me, to be honest,” he said.

“I mean professional sport, it’s not easy, right? You do the job to the best of your ability. You have conviction in what you’re doing, and whatever happens, happens.”

McCullum admitted England must improve to keep the series alive, but suggested they would not change their gung-ho approach.

“We knew when we came here that we had to win three Tests to win the series, and the fact we’re 2-0 down has made it harder on ourselves, but it doesn’t stop the belief that you have within the dressing room,” he said.

“I don’t think we’ve been anywhere near our best so far in these last two Tests … but what’s been has been. Now, it’s focusing on the one that’s coming.”

“I firmly believe that if we play our best cricket, we’re a massive chance in this Test match. We do that, and the narrative changes in the series,” he added.

McCullum defended the decision to take a beach break rather than train after two heavy defeats.

“Noosa for us was excellent. It was planned, obviously a year ago,” he said, adding that it was about spending “time away from the heat of the battle”.

“And I think now the freshness which we come into this Test match with will hopefully pay off.

“There’s no guarantee, but that’s the plan, and I think the boys are excited to get back to training and look forward to the next few days.”

Josh Inglis is expected to come into Australia’s batting line-up for the second Ashes Test on Thursday (December 4, 2025) as speculation grows that captain Pat Cummins might make a shock comeback in Brisbane.

Travis Head, who made a match-winning century as a makeshift opener in Perth, is set to remain at the top of the order in place of the injured Usman Khawaja, with England-born Inglis slotting into the middle order.

Stand-in captain Steve Smith would not confirm the team when he spoke on the eve of the Test or address swirling Cummins comeback rumours, which were widely circulating in the Australian press on Wednesday (December 3, 2025).

He did say that Cummins had been bowling well in training following his long-standing back injury.

“He looks pretty good to me, the way he’s bowling in the nets,” Smith said.

“Obviously the game’s a different intensity, but he’s tracking really nicely. He knows his body well, and yeah, we’ll wait and see.”

Smith expects an unchanged aggressive approach from Ben Stokes’s England, who are 1-0 down in the five-match series after Australia’s stunning eight-wicket win in Perth.

The Gabba under lights is expected to offer plenty of help for both bowling attacks with England stacked with quicks, though off-spinner Will Jacks has been called in to replace injured speedster Mark Wood.

“I think they’ve said for a while they’re not going to change the way they go about their business,” Smith said.

“I don’t expect too much different this time. They play quite an aggressive brand of cricket and you know when they get going, they’re going to score at a good pace.”

England were widely castigated after the first Test ended inside two days, with former players slamming the so-called “Bazball” tactics which saw a number of batsmen throw their wickets away with rash shots.

“But for us it’s not focusing too much on what they do, but ensuring we’ve got our plans in place and focus on what we do well and do it for long periods of time,” said Smith, who added that Australia favoured a different approach.

“I think we adapt to conditions and play what’s in front of us,” Smith said. “That’s the one thing this team has done well for a period of time.

“We’ve been able to sum up the conditions, play what’s in front in live time, not get back in the shed and say ‘we should have played this way, we should have done this’.

“Playing what’s in front of us and doing it for long periods — if you do that in Test cricket it holds you in pretty good stead.”