Former England skipper Alastair Cook delivered a scathing verdict of the Melbourne pitch served for the fourth Ashes Test, calling it “sub-standard” after the match ended inside two days.

The MCG surface was prepared with 10 millimetres of grass on the wicket, making it heavily favourable for the pace bowlers. As many as 20 wickets fell on the opening day while 16 wickets crumbled on Day 2, with no batter managing to hit a half-century across the match won by England.

Cook mentioned how modern greats like Joe Root and Steve Smith found it hard to bat on that track. He went on to add that the MCG pitch had become livelier after he slammed 244 in the Boxing Day Test match in 2017.

“There has been a lot of comment about batting techniques and how players batted on this surface. But I think the pitch was sub-standard, and it became an absolute lottery. International bowlers don’t need very much assistance, and when they get as much as they did here, it becomes almost impossible.”

“We saw two modern greats of the game — Root and Steve Smith — really struggling to score runs convincingly. Root tried to gut it out, but in the first innings made a 15-ball duck and barely laid a bat on it, whereas Harry Brook played in his usual adventurous style and made 41, which was an important innings.”

“It was after I made 244 in 2017 that they decided to make the pitch more bowler-friendly. It was the best I ever batted, and yet after watching two days of it, people decided they never wanted to see anything like it again! They didn’t change the pitch in Antigua after Brian Lara made 375 and 400 there, so I don’t know what that says about my batting…” Cook wrote in his column for ‘The Times’.

Cook appreciated captain Ben Stokes for his role in keeping the team together after conceding the Ashes urn at the Adelaide Oval.

“I was delighted for Joe Root and Ben Stokes, who have waited for so long to win here for the first time, and for all the travelling fans who finally got something to cheer about.”

“Stokes should take a lot of credit for keeping his side together. It is very easy over Christmas when you are 3-0 down, and the Ashes have gone for things to start to fall apart. So it is a great credit to him and the team that they were able to come out and win here,” he further wrote.

Coming to the Melbourne Test, the hosts were bowled out for 152 after being invited to bat first on a green wicket offering substantial sideways movement for fast bowlers. In response, the Three Lions fared even worse and ended up conceding a handy first-innings lead of 42 runs.

On Day 2, Australia’s second innings folded for 132, setting a target of 175 for the visitors. During the chase, England came out all guns blazing as Ben Duckett (34 off 26) and Zak Crawley (37 off 48) approached it like a T20 match.

Australia did manage to get breakthroughs, but they came too little too late, and in the end, Jacob Bethell (40) and Harry Brook (18*) ensured that the Ben Stokes-led side cruised home for the loss of six wickets.

England will look to finish the Ashes series on a high in the New Year’s Test, slated to begin on January 4 at SCG.