England's Jamie Smith, left, is bowled by Australia's Scott Boland, right, during their Ashes cricket test match in Melbourne on December 26. (AP Photo)
Former England captain Alastair Cook slammed the pitch that was used for the 2025-26 Ashes Test at Melbourne, calling it ‘sub-standard’ and citing how batters like Joe Root and Steve Smith had found it hard to bat on that surface. He added that the MCG pitch had become livelier after he made 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’.
The former opening batter praised Ben Stokes for his role in keeping the team together after being 3-0 down in the Ashes and leading the team to a win at Melbourne.
“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 wrote.
Cook also issued an apology to the batting line-ups of both England and Australia, as well as the fans who had bought tickets to watch the action on Days 3 and 4, after the Melbourne Test match was wrapped up in two days.