{"id":39096,"date":"2025-12-25T23:17:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T23:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=39096"},"modified":"2025-12-25T23:17:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T23:17:42","slug":"australia-v-england-fourth-ashes-test-day-one-live-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=39096","title":{"rendered":"Australia v England: fourth Ashes Test, day one \u2013 live | Ashes 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The teams: no Doggett<\/h2>\n

England stick with the XI they announced in advance, so Jacob Bethell replaces Ollie Pope \u2013 who was giving him some throwdwons this morning, so no hard feelings. Jofra Archer is injured, so Gus Atkinson comes back. Graeme Swann and Alastair Cook feel that, with some grass on the pitch, England may regret not picking Matthew Potts, who pitches it up more than their other seamers.<\/p>\n

Australia leave out Brendan Doggett, preferring Michael Neser, who did so well in Brisbane, and Jhye Richardson, who returns from four years of bad luck with injuries. Smith replaces Josh Inglis, Cam Green is demoted to No 7, and there\u2019s no spinner, which may have been one more reason why Stokes has asked Australia to bat first and bowl last.<\/p>\n

Australia<\/strong> 1 Head, 2 Weatherald, 3 Labuschagne, 4 Smith (capt), 5 Khawaja, 6 Carey (wkt), 7 Green, 8 Starc, 9 Neser, 10 Richardson, 11 Boland.<\/p>\n

England<\/strong> 1 Crawley, 2 Duckett, 3 Bethell, 4 Root, 5 Brook, 6 Stokes (capt), 7 Smith (wkt), 8 Jacks, 9 Atkinson, 10 Carse, 11 Tongue.<\/p>\n

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Toss: England win and elect to bowl<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a grey day, so Ben Stokes has put Australia in to bat. Steve Smith says he would have done the same. As it is, he has to bowl last with no spinner.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Ben Stokes and Brendan McCullum talk during the warmup.<\/span> Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAPShare<\/p>\n

Updated at\u00a018.06 EST<\/p>\n

Pre-match reading (2)<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s Melbourne, it\u2019s Boxing Day, it\u2019s a crowd three times the size of Lord\u2019s, and it\u2019s seen some spectacular cricket. Andy Martin picks five Ashes Boxing Days to remember, all from the past 40 years, and not all going Australia\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

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The next email starts with a line I\u2019m not used to seeing.<\/strong> \u201cDead right Tim,\u201d says Dean Kinsella. \u201cI haven\u2019t been able to follow the previous 3 tests all that closely for various reasons (perhaps not a bad thing), but ready for this game. So it\u2019s a clean slate for me. Two matches of my absolute favourite sport to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pre-match reading<\/h2>\n

Some players are hoarders, others are not. Shane Warne, it turns out, was a secret hoarder, and some of his stuff is now on display at the MCG. Jim Wallace, of this parish, has had a preview.<\/p>\n

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The first email of the day has landed.<\/strong> \u201cHope you had\/are still having a super Christmas,\u201d says Andrew Benton. Thanks, it\u2019s been very nice, hope yours has too. And everyone\u2019s!<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see a scenario,\u201d he goes on, \u201cin which Rob Key and Brendan McCullum are advising the England players to be laid back and chill, and Ben Stokes is quietly telling everyone they need to work 24\/7 on everything at all times in order to have a good chance of winning. Given the whole point of the Bazball style was to win the Ashes as McCullum and Stokes said many times over the years, why have the Key\/McCullum heads not yet rolled? Australia have been amazing, but you\u2019d sort of expect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heads don\u2019t usually roll during the series, do they? That\u2019s one of the ways in which cricket still keeps its distance from football. But as you say, it\u2019s been very interesting to hear Stokes and McCullum singing from different hymn sheets. If only one of them gets to stay, you\u2019d expect it to be Stokes. But McCullum has an assignment straight after this series \u2013 the WT20 in the subcontinent \u2013 so maybe his fate, like Joe Root\u2019s as captain four years ago, will be decided at the end of the next chapter.<\/p>\n

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Updated at\u00a017.40 EST<\/p>\n

Preamble<\/h2>\n

So here it is \u2026 Merry Christmas! Everybody\u2019s having fun (except perhaps Ben Duckett). Look to the future now, it\u2019s only just begun.<\/p>\n

Does Sir Geoffrey always tell you that the old ways are the best? Then he\u2019s up and rock\u2019n\u2019 \u2013 hang on, there\u2019s no way of making that work. Much like being in charge of an England Test team in Australia if your name is not Andrew.<\/p>\n

Anyway, here\u2019s a quiz question. Of all the losing squads England have sent on an Ashes tour this century, which one has done least badly? Using a simple yardstick: the gap between their average score and Australia\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Look away now if you want a minute to think about this. But you\u2019ve probably guessed where I\u2019m going with it. Yes, the answer is \u2026 Ben Stokes\u2019 brave boys from 2025-26.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re averaging 258 per completed innings (actually, all their innings have been completed \u2013 for some reason, not even Stokes has been inclined to declare). The Aussies have made 372 per completed innings \u2013 only four of those so far, but the two romps to victory still feed into the average. So the difference between the two sides has been 114.<\/p>\n

That may sound embarrassing, but, by England\u2019s Ashes-tour standards, it\u2019s highly respectable. Last time round, under Joe Root, they averaged a feeble 202. Their bowlers kept the Aussies down to 350, which still left them, on average, 148 behind.<\/p>\n

The time before, also on Root\u2019s watch? England batted better, averaging 292. But we may have to give most of the credit to the pitches, as the Aussies averaged 514. No, that is not a misprint: the gulf was 222, almost twice as bad as in the present series.<\/p>\n

How about 2013-14, under Alastair Cook? England averaged 216, Australia 414, so the gulf was 198. Or 2006-07, under Fred Flintoff? England 264, Australia 528, the gulf 264. Should have stuck to calling himself Andrew.<\/p>\n

Which just leaves Nasser Hussain\u2019s tour in 2002-03 \u2013 surely that wasn\u2019t too bad? Well, the batting wasn\u2019t. England 293, Australia 468, the gulf 175.<\/p>\n

With the ball, Stokes\u2019s team have been more effective than any other bunch of England losers, bar the lockdown gang of 2020-21. With the bat, they are fourth out of six, and as they\u2019ve done better in each Test of this series than the one before (yes, really), they could end up second. In terms of the gulf, they\u2019re the bees\u2019 knees. It hasn\u2019t been worse than usual: it\u2019s just been more galling for the fans because their hopes were higher.<\/p>\n

Some are calling these last two Tests a dead rubber, but that\u2019s a term that just doesn\u2019t belong in Test cricket. Every match is an occasion, never mind Melbourne on Boxing Day. Every match counts \u2013 for the World Championship, for the mood in the camp, for the individual\u2019s self-respect, for the reckoning afterwards, and for the career average that a Test cricketer has to carry around on his back like a snail.<\/p>\n

The first game I went to in Australia was the fifth Test of 1986-87 in Sydney. It was billed as a dead rubber because England, of all people, had just gone 2-0 up to seal the series. The Aussies, captained by Allan Border and buoyed by a dream debut from Peter Who?, took the game seriously and won it. The great John Woodcock reckoned it was that game that sowed the seeds of the 1989 series, when Border\u2019s team beat England 4-0. Far from dying, that rubber had helped the Aussies to bounce back.<\/p>\n

Recent history tells England supporters that the wheels may well be about to come off, but there\u2019s still plenty to play for. And neither Pat Cummins nor Nathan Lyon is playing, so Root and Stokes, England\u2019s two old stagers, won\u2019t have to face their nemeses.<\/p>\n

The other England batters need to treat Mitchell Starc the way they treated Jasprit Bumrah in the summer: don\u2019t take him on, do see him off. Then they just have to figure out how to play the demon Neser. Oh, and Jhye Richardson, who, the last time he bowled in a Test, four years ago in Adelaide, helped himself to five England wickets.<\/p>\n

A consolation victory is still a victory. And it would bring some consolation.<\/p>\n

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Updated at\u00a017.19 EST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature The teams: no Doggett England stick with the XI they announced in advance, so Jacob Bethell replaces Ollie Pope \u2013 who was giving him some throwdwons this morning, so no hard feelings. Jofra Archer is injured, so Gus Atkinson comes back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[16527,346,131,311,2438,132,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-39096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ashes","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-day","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-fourth","13":"tag-live","14":"tag-test"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}