Posted by The Boxing Day Test is looming and despite the already terminal series scoreline, we are very excited indeed. Nevertheless, our default approach to covering the sport’s biggest Test match is to wish you all a happy Festivus and then bugger off… so that’s what we’re doing.
The long and short of it is that we can’t really guarantee we’ll write anything at this time of year, but the Boxing Day Test is such a big thing it demands acknowledgement and a place where impassioned early hours insight from the readership can be posted for the good of all humankind.
So that’s what this article is for. We probably won’t be writing much above the line during this Test match, but we’ll definitely be found below. We rather enjoy being a reader at this time of year. What a great website. We really should show our support and back its Patreon.
The 2025 Boxing Day Test
There is just the one Boxing Day Test this year, but it’s the big ‘un: Australia v England at the MCG from 11.30pm on Christmas Day (UK time).
We’ve rarely been accused of upbeat positivity and this week’s “Woe! The Ashes are gone!” dissection was no exception. We haven’t really lost any interest in the series though.
It’s depressingly true that England still haven’t won the Ashes in Australia since 2010/11, but they also haven’t won a single Test match there since that same series. This seems to us an even more significant unticked box on the ‘to do’ list – it’s kind of a requirement for the more ambitious goal, after all.
Any chance?
Stranger things have happened. In fact one of England’s strangest single days of Test cricket happened at this week’s location: Melbourne Cricket Ground, the MCG… the ‘G.
With the 2010/11 Ashes level at 1-1 and Australia clearly in the ascendancy having reverted to bowling their opponents out for under 200 in both innings of the previous Test match, England came out and gave themselves an innings-and-59-run head start going into Day 2.
Read all about it! (We really need a special ‘Read all about it!’ image to go with these book plugs.)
Boxing Day Ashes Tests since then haven’t been quite so delightful – although there was a very boring draw in 2017.
Teams
England were always going to drop their number three batter in favour of the other after the third Test. The only question at the start of the series was which number three would be heading in which direction. They ultimately chose to sacrifice Ollie Pope in the live Tests and have therefore now moved on to Jacob Bethell for the dead rubbers.
Almost as predictably, Jofra Archer has been struck down by injury and England’s journey to right-arm fast-medium is all but complete.
Australia, meanwhile, are back to just the one first-choice bowler (Mitchell Starc) in Melbourne, after a brief flirtation with three (Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon) in Adelaide.
Happy Festivus!
Stay focused and try not to spray it around too much during The Airing of Grievances and then don’t get overly ambitious during The Feats of Strength – remember, you aren’t as young as you were.
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Daisy and I are off to see the Banksy exhibition this afternoon, so your edict, “don’t spray it around too much” has special meaning in that context.
But today is actually not Festivus, but “Festivus-Boxing-Day”…
…presumably the day when unwanted grievances, poles and feats of strength should be boxed up and handed down to the servants.
Best wishes of the season to all who read here from both me and Daisy.
Given what precedes it, the main activity of the day must presumably be The Nursing of Injuries – both physical and psychological.
Wonder whether the conventional Boxing Day will deliver similarly…
I think I may be the most miserable sod to visit this site but I don’t wish this bushel to extinguish the light of my gratitude for your missives, KC. Thanks for modelling such levity, comity, equanimity and…er…adiposity…hmm.
May all your Christmases be white…but not white ball.
Now there’s a sentiment we can get behind. Thanks. Likewise.
In new Zealand as a teacher, this is the time of year where depression meets joy.
If things go well, this year you can roll out of bed and watch and park up next to the ferrero rocher packet and turn on the Aus test, flip briefly to the super smash during a break, then watch back to back big bash games
To be clear – these are my plans for the next four weeks
All the bestivus.
Have a great day before the Boxing Day Test, as Gideon Haigh called it. And hopefully a lot of others as well, thanks for all the funny and perceptive commentary.
We’ve checked the score for the first time between innings. Wonder how we’ll look back on this moment…
Still here at 8-3. Wonder how we’ll- yeah, you get it.
Sigh
Remember the summer when every match lasted five days? Now that was entertainment…
Merry boxing day testmas everyone
I think Cricinfo et al are holding off on end of year lists until this test is over which is irritating.
Anyway, my vote for lord megachief of gold is starc. I mean, sure, I’ll be a loyal kiwi and say Jacob Duffy … But it’s starc.
Honestly, pretty much everyone else has been not-gold this year. Who has been great? Temba? Siraj? Everyone who had one or another great series stunk up the joint in one or another series.
Not sure we get votes, this is a monarchy ain’t it? So we are free of the burden of decision-making.
I mean I’m all for democracy on everyday things like running the country. But Lord Megachief of Gold? Come on now.
Blah blah…uncovered pitches…blah blah…five day tests with a rest day between days three and four…blah blah…proper wickets…blah blah…sensible batting…blah blah stick of rhubarb…blah blah…proper cricket.
Even Daisy is harking back to Boxing Day tests gone by with a nostalgic glint in her eyes.
Absolutely nothing wrong with 20 wickets in a day. Don’t check new Zealands recent test history..
I’ll tell you what, those ticket holders got their money worth
The day three ticket holders maybe not so much.
Well, here we go… . Could it work this time? Currently 45-0.!Everything crossed
I’m starting to believe.
Good on the English. If NZ win one out of four tests next year there will e a parade
There will be an inquiry into the pitch, no doubt? God forbid that the batsmen actually have to apply themselves to score runs.
That looked less like an “apply yourself” pitch and more like a “chance your arm” pitch for the batsmen.
Two day test matches make a lot less commercial sense than four or five day ones. God forbid that the management pointy-heads who increasingly administer cricket these days, informed by the media pointy-heads who shell out the broadcasting monies, come to the conclusion that test cricket is not commercially viable any more.
Not an argument for bore-draws but it is an argument for a better balance between bat skills and ball skills than was possible at Melbourne this year.
I think it’s just batsmen not having the technical ability to defend. I’m not so sure someone like, say, Dravid would lose his wicket that cheaply.
(Yes, I know picking an extremely technically correct batsman is cheating a bit)
“That was great, but it’s not so much fun when it is all over so quickly”, said Daisy.
Oh Ged. Just think of Geoffrey, he always slows things down
I hope you’re not suggesting that Geoffrey’s mum could do better than that with a stick of rhubarb, Tim.
Well, that was some ridiculous Ashes right there. Merry day after boxing day testmas to the best bit of the internet.
Merry Day After Boxing Day Testmas, JJE!
I know it’s hard, with finances dictating everything, but I wish we could have Boxing Day tests in Australia, South Africa and the West Indies. A bit of 24 hour cricket is just what we need at this time of year.
Yeah, well, that was that I suppose. Was so unimpressed that it’s taken me to what would have been the end of the 4th day of the test to post a rant. Two days after everyone else has posted.
I guess the pitch won and rightly got “fined” for it in the process. Should have had a demerit point for every day’s play lost. I mean if this is the future of test cricket, why not just bang two ODI matches back to back and have done with it.
Sydney! I’m watching you, so behave.
Sydney was awful last year
Pitch was a bit too paced but it’s a bit of a stretch to say it forced international test cricketers to play an amazing array of non test batting shots to get themselves out.
Highlights of watching the second day live at the MCG has to be seeing Labuschagne review then get given out and sook it up by walking as slowly as possible off the pitch. Peak brattiness.
Surreal that after about twenty minutes of the second session it was obvious there wasn’t going to be a third day.