After bowlers dominated the first day of the fourth Ashes 2025-26 Test on Friday, December 26, former England cricketers Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan, and Stuart Broad criticized the pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test saw 20 wickets taken as both teams found it difficult to bat on a surface that provided a lot of movement to pacers. In their first innings, England was knocked for just 110, while Australia was bowled out for 152. Australia ended the day with a 46-run lead after reaching 4/0 in their second innings.
Former England captain Alastair Cook believed the ground was unsuitable for a Test match. He claimed that the ground was overly favorable to bowlers, making batting extremely difficult. Cook said that, while both teams could have batted better, the amount of movement available made it unfair to the batters.
“I think we have to talk a little bit about this wicket. It’s not a great Test match wicket. Unless this flattens out on days two, three, and four, if we get there, it was too heavily weighted in the bowlers’ favor. I think it was an unfair contest. Could both sides have batted slightly better? Yes, but I was watching some of that bowling, and I don’t know how you face that,” Cook said on TNT Sports.
On the other hand, Michael Vaughan didn’t mince his words in his analysis and described the pitch as a ‘shocker’ for the first day of a Test match. Vaughan said the surface was doing far too much, noting that the ball appeared to move even more when Australia bowled.
“The pitch is a shocker. For a Test match first day, it’s just done far too much. It’s actually done it quicker when Australia bowled; it just seems to be nipping quicker. That ball is nipping back from Boland to the right-handers; you question technique, and of course you can play it better, but they’re so difficult to face when they’re nipping back like that,” Vaughan said on BBC Test Match Special.
Former England pacer Stuart Broad joined the criticism and stated that the pitch did too much. He added that Test-level bowlers do not need this much assistance.
“Test match bowlers don’t need this amount of movement to look threatening,” Broad said.
Josh Tongue stood out with the ball for England, taking a five-wicket haul, while Michael Neser top-scored for Australia with 35. On the other hand, Neser took four wickets, and Scott Boland took three wickets, as England folded for 110, and Harry Brook top-scored with 41 runs.
