Ben Stokes was critical of the MCG pitch after beating Australia by four wickets in the Ashes 2025/26 Boxing Day Test.
Only 142 overs of play in six sessions decided the outcome of the MCG Test as England registered their first Test win down under in 15 years. Travis Head’s 46 in the second innings was the highest score in the game, which was the second Test of the series that finished within two days.
The nature of the MCG pitch, where the ball nipped away and came in off the seam consistently, and to varying degrees, aided by the 10mm grass cover, has been widely criticised. Stokes echoed the thoughts of many other pundits and former cricketers, pointing out how no total of 200 was registered across the four innings, which would have attracted a lot of scrutiny if it were anywhere else in the world.
Stokes told BBC Test Match Special: "With 36 wickets in less than two days and no total over 200, I think you can read into that a lot. If that was another condition somewhere else and that happened, you probably would get a pasting."
When asked if he was referring to the spin-heavy pitches in the Indian subcontinent, he said, "Those are your words, not mine", before adding, "I'm pretty sure if that was somewhere else in the world there'd be hell on.
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"It is not the best thing for games that should be played over five days but we played a type of cricket that ended up getting the job done."
36 wickets fall in two days of the MCG Test
The first day of the Test saw both sides getting bowled out, with Australia even starting their second innings, to make such an instance a first in Boxing Day Tests. Stokes put the hosts into bat, but their innings never got going, with a seventh-wicket 52-run partnership between Michael Neser and Cameron Green taking them past 150.
England, in reply, were dismissed within 30 overs, getting to 110 largely thanks to Harry Brook’s 41 and Gus Atkinson’s rearguard action of 28. But with the pitch retaining its nature from the first day, Australia lost six wickets in the first session, and then four more in the next on day two to be bowled out for 132.
The visitors were put on course by Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley’s 51-run stand, with Jacob Bethell top-scoring with a 40 to get them through with four wickets to spare.
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