Australia v England, fourth Ashes Test: match preview

Match facts

Who: Australia v England

 

What: Fourth NRMA Insurance Test, men's Ashes

 

When: December 26-30, first ball 10.30am AEDT (11.30pm GMT)

 

Where: MCG, Melbourne

 

Live scores: Match Centre

 

How to watch: Channel Seven, 7plus, Kayo Sports and Foxtel

How to listen: ABC Radio, Triple M and SEN Radio. New this summer, the CA Live app has teamed up with NRMA Insurance so you can listen to radio and commentary streams in real-time with no delay to live play using zero-latency technology. Cricket Radio (both standard and real-time) is available anywhere in Australia in the CA Live match centre, however, some audio streams, such as TV commentary, may be exclusive to fans attending a match. Find out more here.

 

Buy tickets: Tickets are still available for days two, three and four. Get them here

 

Officials: Chris Gaffaney and Kumar Dharmasena (field), Ahsan Raza (third), Phil Gillespie (fourth), Jeff Crowe (match referee)

 

News and reactions post-play: cricket.com.au and the CA Live app. The Unplayable Podcast will also be dropping a new episode after each days' play during the Ashes. Join host Josh Schonafinger and Louis Cameron to recap all the action and talking points from the MCG. And you can listen to the back catalogue of episodes below.

Listen on SpotifyListen on Apple PodcastsListen on iHeart Radio

First Test session times

First Session: 10.30am – 12.30pm (11.30pm – 1.30am GMT)

 

Second Session: 1.10pm – 3.10pm (2.10am – 4.10am GMT)

 

Third Session: 3.30pm – 5.30pm (4.30am – 6.30am GMT)

 

*An extra 30 minutes is available to complete daily overs

Full series schedule

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Third Test: Australia won by 82 runs

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

The squads

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

 

Ins: Todd Murphy, Jhye Richardson. Outs: Pat Cummins (management), Nathan Lyon (hamstring)

Todd Murphy is in line for the best Christmas present a Victorian cricketer could ask for after replacing the injured Nathan Lyon in Australia's squad for the Boxing Day Test. The veteran off-spinner is set for surgery after tearing his right hamstring diving to save a boundary on day five of the Aussies' Ashes-clinching third Test victory.

Captain Pat Cummins is out for the rest of the series to manage his workloads after taking six wickets to help Australia clinch the Ashes in his return from a back injury in Adelaide. West Australian speedster Jhye Richardson has been included in the squad for the fourth Test squad, joining Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser as the hosts' third pace option for Boxing Day, presuming Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc pull up well following Sunday's third Test victory.

Murphy was Australia A's spinner against England Lions earlier this month, taking 2-7 and 1-57, which included the wicket of the tourists' Test squad member Jacob Bethell. Richardson also played in that innings victory over the Lions, claiming 4-35 and 1-41, and is in the frame to play his first Test since the last home Ashes in 2021-22, where he helped bowl Australia to a 275-run victory in Adelaide with five wickets in the second innings.

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue

With the Ashes now officially lost, England will be looking to salvage what they can from the remaining Tests. But with just a 16-man touring party – featuring only one reserve batter (Jacob Bethell) – Ben Stokes' side don't have many options to turn to as they seek to salvage something from this Ashes tour.

Will Ollie Pope survive after scores of three and 17 in Adelaide, or will Jacob Bethell get a run? Could Stokes and Will Jacks bat higher? Is now the time for Shoaib Bashir to have his moment? There's lots to ponder for the visiting team who will be desperate to return home on a positive note after losing the Ashes in just 11 days of cricket.

Possible XIs

Australia: Jake Weatherald, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (c), Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland

There's plenty of decisions awaiting George Bailey and his selection panel despite Australia holding an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series. Nathan Lyon's hamstring injury, Pat Cummins' workload management and Steve Smith's pending return from an inner-ear issues mean Australia is poised to make at least three changes for Boxing Day. Smith will slide back in a No.4 but did Usman Khawaja do enough to hold his spot with scores of 82 and 40 after his late reprieve for the third Test?

Coach Andrew McDonald gave big wraps for Alex Carey at No.6 and wants him to stay there for the fourth Test. And with Australia also pleased with the Travis Head-Jake Weatherald dynamic at the top, there's set to be a squeeze in the middle order with Cameron Green and Josh Inglis under pressure after failing to fully get going so far this series.

Does Lyon's injury shift Australia's thinking as to whether to play a spinner or not at the MCG? McDonald said they're still weighing that up three days out from the match, but working in Todd Murphy's favour for a dream Boxing Day recall is the 'G is one of his home grounds in the Sheffield Shield, albeit Victoria now play the majority of their matches at Junction Oval in St Kilda. Allrounder Beau Webster has been waiting in the wings all series and offers both pace and off-spin bowling options.

By all reports Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland have pulled up well following the end of the third Test on Sunday, meaning it's a three-way race between Michael Neser, Brendan Doggett and Jhye Richardson for the final pace-bowling spot if Murphy plays.

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue

Surely England have to make a change to their batting line up for the fourth Test with not enough first innings runs costing them in all three Tests so far. Jacob Bethell is the only reserve batter in the tourists' squad, although Will Jacks could move up the order having batted at the top in white-ball internationals.

Josh Tongue impressed in Adelaide with four wickets in the second innings, while Brydon Carse went at more than four-and-a-half runs per over for the match. Off-spinner Shoaib Bashir could come into calculations, but if they didn't play him in Adelaide, then what's the difference here?

Players to watch

Scott Boland (Australia): More MCG magic from the beloved Victoria? You'd love to see it. Boland made his Test debut on Boxing Day in Australia last home Ashes campaign, famously capturing 6-7 in four overs in the second innings to help secure the urn. Boasts 123 wickets at 23.87 in 33 first-class matches at the MCG since his debut in 2011 – more than any other player in that time – so you wouldn't put it past him for another big haul.

Zak Crawley (England): England's top scorer from the second innings with 85 from 151 balls seems to have found his style on Aussie pitches, and it's not what we've come to expect from Crawley in the Bazball era. Batted superbly to keep England's hopes briefly alive before being beaten by Nathan Lyon through the air. Only managed 12 and five in the last Ashes Boxing Day Test in 2021, but in the fourth Test of the 2023 series he slammed 189 before the rain saved Australia at Old Trafford.

Local knowledge

There are few venues more intrinsically linked with the Ashes than the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The 'G famously held the first ever Test match, between Australia and England, back in March 1877, which the Aussies won by 45 runs.

All told, Australia has played 117 matches at the 'G, winning 68 and losing just 32. They have been beaten there only four times this century, albeit two of those defeats have taken place in the last seven years, both at the hands of India.

England, though, can draw some inspiration from their recent past. They have won two of their past seven meetings at the MCG (1998-99 and 2010-11) and drew another (2017-18).

Both English wins are among the most famous in Ashes history.

The first, in the Boxing Day Test of 1998, saw a Dean Headley-inspired side rattle home to win by 12 runs. Visions of Headley and Darren Gough tearing through the Australian tail linger long in the Barmy Army's memory.

Boxing Day in 2010, meanwhile, is famous for Australia's capitulation on the opening day. England's pace attack sliced the home side to pieces, bowling them out for just 98 runs.

To rub salt into the wounds, they flayed the Aussie attack to all corners as they ran up a total of 513. The match was to be Ricky Ponting's last as Test captain as England sealed an Ashes victory on Australian shores for the first time since 1986-87.

Boxing Day at the MCG has become a fabled cricketing tradition over the years.

The ground hosted a Test on Boxing Day three times between 1968 and 1975 before it became a regular part of the cricket calendar in 1980.

Only twice in the years since (1984 and 1994) has the MCG gone without a Test match on Boxing Day, and when the Ashes are up for grabs, the fans turn up in their droves.

In fact, Australia and England have drawn day one crowds of more than 88,000 to three of their past five meetings on December 26.

What sort of turnout will we see at the 'G this time around?

Form guide

Past 10 matches, most recent first. W: win, L: loss, D: draw

Australia: WWWWWWLWWW

The good times keep on rolling for Australia. Victory in Adelaide made it six on the bounce, something the Aussies have done only eight other times in their history, and not since Ricky Ponting's side swept away the West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand in 2009-10.

England: LLLLDWLWWLW

Ouch. England have now lost four Tests in a row, and have only won one of their past seven. In fact, they have only won three of their nine Tests this year, and only one since the start of July. Can they find something special in Melbourne to finish the year on a high?

World Test Championship

Nothing has changed here as far as Australia are concerned. They're top of the pops after almost six months of the new ICC World Test Championship with six wins from six starts. New Zealand has leapt into second thanks to their series win over the Windies, with South Africa only marginally behind in third place. England is languishing in seventh, above only Bangladesh and the West Indies, well behind sixth placed India. The top two teams, ranked according to their percentage of points won, will face off in the WTC final in England in mid-2027. Teams receive 12 points for a Test win, six for a tie and four for draw.

Rapid stats

• Australia are on a three-match winning streak in men's Tests against England after not winning any of their previous three encounters (drawn one, lost two), while the last time they won more successive matches against England in the format was a four-game stretch from August 2015 to December 2017.
  
  
• Australia are unbeaten in their last three men's Tests against England at the MCG (won two, drawn one), including an innings win in their last meeting there (Boxing Day 2021); in fact, three of the last five meetings between these teams at the venue have been decided by a margin of more than an innings.
  
  
• Australia have won their last four straight Boxing Day Tests at the MCG, twice by a margin of more than an innings, and haven't lost a Boxing Day Test to a team other than India since 2010 when they lost by an innings and 157 runs to England.
  
  
• Australia are on a six-match winning streak in men's Tests and have won 10 of their past 11 matches in the format; in fact, the last time they won more successive matches in the format was a seven-match stretch from December 2009 to July 2010.
  
  
• England have lost their past four straight men's Tests, which equals their longest losing run in the format since a five-match stretch from November 2013 to January 2014 during a 0-5 Ashes loss in Australia; indeed, England have lost 10 of their last 13 men's Tests away from home.
  
  
• Across the past 10 years of men's Tests at the MCG, no team has a better bowling economy than England (2.53), who have played two Tests there in that time; in fact, it's also the only ground in Australia in which England have a bowling economy below three runs per over in that time.
  
  
• Alex Carey (Australia) has been involved in 2.72 fielding dismissals per innings in the Ashes across his career, the most of any player to feature in more than two men's Ashes Tests; in fact, his 3.16 dismissals per innings in the 2025-26 Ashes are second only to Chris Read's four per innings in 2006-07 in a single Ashes series.
  
  
• Harry Brook (England) has made a good connection on 70 per cent of his 237 balls faced in the 2025-26 Ashes, the highest rate of any batter in the series; he is seven away from reaching 3,000 Test runs but hasn't reached 50 runs in any of his last five innings, which is his longest ever stretch without a 50-plus score.
  
  
• Scott Boland (Australia) has taken 123 first-class wickets at the MCG since making his first-class debut in November 2011, at least 49 more than any other player at the venue in that time (Peter Siddle, 74); in fact, since the beginning of 2021, he has taken 46 wickets at an average of 16.8 at the venue, including match figures of 6-96 against India in his last match there.
  
  
• Joe Root (England) has scored four Test centuries in 2025, the second-most of any batter behind only India's Shubman Gill (5), but is yet to reach triple figures in a Test innings at the MCG (5 innings); only at Adelaide Oval (8 innings) and The Rose Bowl (6 innings) has he batted more times and never logged a century.