Ashes 2025/26 4th Test Match Review

 

It took until the 13^th day of this Ashes series, but England finally put in a performance that illustrated the advantages of an aggressive and positive approach as they secured victory at the MCG inside 2 days and saved Bazball from a 5-0 humiliation.

 

Both days of this exhilarating test had a familiar start. England’s fast bowlers made use of a very helpful pitch by pitching the ball consistently fuller and giving the batsman less width than they had in the previous tests. Some of Australia’s batters were then undone by balls with considerable movement, dismissals that were down more to the pitch and English skill than technical deficiencies. Many of Australia’s top order however simply played poor shots to the moving ball. When England get out playing these kind of shots it is often said to be because of the recklessness of Bazball and an unwillingness to leave the ball because it that is not the way they play. Australia deserve credit for their relentless and willingness to play slower, more conventional cricket in the first three tests. However, the dismals in this test showed batters in all countries are more vulnerable to the ball doing more than in previous generations, because techniques have been fundamentally changed by the advent of T20.

 

Yet it was the shots and style of play developed in T20 that helped England get over the line in this test match. Harry Brook’s 41 in the first innings was full of big drives and charges down the wicket, but he recognised that the best way for him to make as many runs as possible on that pitch with his technique was to go full on Bazball. Other England batters in the first innings made the mistake of trying to hang in their rather than taking the option of putting pressure back onto the bowlers, which after all is supposed to be what the Stokes-McCullum era is all about. During the fourth innings chase, the batters seemed to have learnt their mistake, no doubt encouraged by the pitch on day two providing more movement than it had on day one. Duckett and Crawley put on 51 in 12 overs, and by the time the first wicket fell England had relieved much of the pressure of a tricky run chase. Jacob Bethell showed he has a future in the test match arena at 3, his 40 a mixture of classical and lofted drives. England’s ability to keep the scoreboard ticking over meant even when they lost wickets you never felt like the chase would be beyond them.

 

Steve Smith has outperformed Ben Stokes as a captain this series, but he made some big mistakes in this game. The biggest was not opening the bowling in England’s second innings with Scott Boland, the trickiest bowler to face on that surface. By the time he came on England needed just over 100 to win, and the ball had lost some of its shine. Smith’s own batting performance with the tail was strange, Instead of trying to farm the strike, he took singles at the beginning of multiple overs, leaving them vulnerable to the English bowlers who were finding a consistent line and length for the first time sine day one of the series. It will be interesting to see if Pat Cummins comes in for the Sydney test, and his inclusion/exclusion will be an indication of whether Australia see this game as a fluke because of the pitch, or a performance that could have come in the first two tests if England had been more ruthless.

 

Ruthless is the buzzword of this series. Australia have been more ruthless than England throughout the series, but not enough to have given England no chance in the three games since Perth. At Melbourne, England did what they were unable to do at Brisbane and Adelaide which is take advantage of openings provided by Australia and win the game.

 

Sydney may be a dead rubber, but an England win will prove that this Australian team was vulnerable, which will probably frustrate English supporters even more.