Former England cricketer Alastair Cook has said that unless the track at the Melbourne Cricket Ground flattens out on Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test, the match would be considered heavily skewed in favour
of the bowlers and wouldn’t be a great exhibition for Test cricket.
Australia and England battled throughout as the ball swung in the air and seamed off the track. Even set batters struggled to trust the bounce, with constant movement inducing errors.
The tough conditions were evident on the scorecard, as no batter managed a half-century all day.
A staggering 20 wickets tumbled on a frantic Day 1 of the fourth Ashes Test on Friday, as Australia were bowled out for just 152 before bouncing back to skittle England for a paltry 110, leaving the game hanging on a knife-edge.
“This is not a great Test wicket. Unless this flattens out on days two, three and four, if we get there, then that was too heavily weighted in the bowlers’ favour. The bowlers did not have to work that hard for wickets,” Cook said while speaking on TNT Sports.
England skipper Ben Stokes won a crucial toss on a green-tinged track, sending Australia in to bat. Under overcast skies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, his pacers ran through the hosts in front of a crowd of 94,199.
“Could both sides have batted slightly better? Yes, but if you put the ball in the right area, it was going to nip either way. It was a bit of an unfair contest,” Cook said.
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