For the second time in four matches, an Ashes Test is likely to finish inside two days.
Cricket Australia will be sweating over the prospect of the Boxing Day Test lasting only a couple of days past Christmas, with a sell-out on day three likely to trigger 90,000 refunds. The board is estimated to have lost more than $3 million dollars when the series-opener in Perth finished on day two. Given the MCG is has a far bigger capacity than the Perth Stadium, that figure will likely be higher should either side wrap up a win in Melbourne tomorrow.
Regardless of England's shortcomings with the bat, faster-paced cricket resulting in quicker Tests have been more prevalent in Australia over the last couple of years. Last year, the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Adelaide was wrapped up before Lunch on day three. The game in Perth last month was the shortest in terms of balls bowled in an Ashes Test since 1888. At the Gabba in 2022, Australia beat South Africa before the close on day two.
The circumstances which have led to 20 wickets falling on Boxing Day in Melbourne, however, have their origins in another decidedly different Ashes Test.
Cook's double sparked MCG pitch rethink
Back in 2017, England were in the middle of another hammering. In their first trip to Australia under Joe Root's leadership, they'd lost the first three games of the series and the Ashes were already gone. Cook was under significant pressure going into Boxing Day. His high score from his previous six innings in the series was 37 and he'd been dismissed for single figures three times. However, a Christmas gift of a flat-track at the MCG gave him an opportunity silence calls for him to step aside.
Cook scored 244* over two turgid days, and a century from Steve Smith sapped any possibility of a result out of the game. The draw did, however, prevent a full 5-0 whitewash. Both teams complained about the surface, with then-Australia head coach Darren Lehmann ruling out the possibility of forcing a result on day three. The pitch was duly rated 'poor' by the ICC after the series had finished. It was the first time an Australian Test surface had received such a rating, and the Melbourne Cricket Club duly launched a review into their pitch preparation.
What followed was a significant change in that process. The MCG has been a drop-in wicket since the beginning of this century. After the 2017 Ashes Test, the MCG ditched the concrete slab it had used under its drop in wickets, which prevented moisture from livening up the surface. It also replaced several ageing wickets.
The result of those changes were hit and miss for the first few years. There was little improvement in what was on offer for Australia's bowlers on day one the following year against India, and Australia wracked-up 467 in their first-innings against New Zealand in 2019. Over the following three years however, the MCG turned into one of Australia's most competitive Test venues. India stormed to a famous victory in 2020, on a pitch where there were both runs to score and wickets to be had, and in 2021 Scott Boland routed England for 68. England's darmitic capitulations in that Test, while on a bowler-friendly surface, exacerbated how far in the direction of bowlers it leaned.
The MCG's triumph, however, came the following year, when it was rated 'very good' by the ICC after Australia's win over South Africa. There was enough in that surface for David Warner to score a double-hundred, but also enough for a second-string South Africa side to be shown for what they were by Australia's quicks. Five years on from Cook's toil, Melbourne had fully redeemed itself.
However, the 2025 MCG surface is a product of both the regeneration of the Melbourne wicket, and a shift to make life harder for batters in Australia as a whole. There have been tweaks made to the Kookaburra ball over the last few years, most notably a double-coating of lacquer to help it keep its shape for longer. Sheffield Shield batting averages in Australia have plummeted to 26.75 since the 2020/21 summer, having been at 34.46 across the five years before then. The MCG's batting average alone went from 36.52 to 25.40. Part of this is also due to the incentivisation of results due to the start of the World Test Championship.
Speaking after play on Boxing Day, Alastair Cook said on TNT Sports: "I actually think it was a bit of an unfair contest. I was watching some of the bowling on that pitch and I was thinking, how do you face that?"
Eight years on from the scene of his Australia best, Cook has in part himself to blame for the struggles he watched England's batters endure.
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