Australia vs England 4th Ashes Test Match: Date, Time, Squad, Pitch-Weather Report, Other Details

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Australia (AUS) vs England (ENG), 4th Ashes Test Match Date, Time, Squad, Venue, Pitch-Weather Report: England captain Ben Stokes has admitted that the dream is over already for them after a defeat in the third Test confirmed that the Ashes will stay with Australia for the fifth year running. In the days since, however, it has only gone from bad to worse for the visitors with there being murmurs of them enjoying a bit too much on their trip to the beach town of Noosa before the third Test, accompanied by a video of opener Ben Duckett going viral on social media. Stokes came out in defence of his players and he would know that the one way some of that criticism can be kept at bay is if they pull themselves together and put in a decent showing at the MCG.

Australia will be in a festive mood, with this being the Boxing Day Test. They are yet to announce a proper 11 but have announced the 12 potential players they will be choosing from. Steve Smith has stated that they will be going with an all-out pace attack, choosing to not replace the injured Nathan Lyon with Todd Murphy. He further said that Australia will wait until the toss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday before confirming a starting XI

Here’s a look at all the details ahead of Australia vs England 2nd Ashes Test in Brisbane

AUS vs ENG 4th Test Predicted XIs

Australia predicted XI: Travis Head, Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (captain), Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Michael Neser/Brendan Doggett, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Scott Boland.

Key player to watch out for: Australia’s selectors are desperate to land on a consistent opening combination for themselves. Usman Khawaja is on the brink of retirement and while Travis Head seems to have cemented himself at the top of the order, all eyes will be on Jake Weatherald, who seems to have emerged as the strongest candidate yet to take the other opening slot. Weatherald, however, has hardly been able to match up to the brilliant 72 he scored at the Gabba and so there will be many hoping that he comes good with the pressure of winning the Ashes now gone.

England XI (announced): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue

Key player to watch out for: England fans probably have very little to look forward to but a good performance from Jacob Bethell with the bat in particular could be a reason for them to smile. England seem to have finally made a call on Ollie Pope and the hope would be that Bethell, who comes in with hype similar to what the former had at the start of his career, also doesn’t turn out to be a flop 60-odd Test matches later.

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AUS vs ENG Weather-pitch report

There is a chance of showers on the first and fifth days of this Test. The jury is out on to what extent it will affect play. Temperatures are expected to remain quite pleasant for the duration of the day tomorrow, expecting to peak out at around 30 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, Smith said that there was plenty of grass on the pitch. The MCG curator Matt Page had said that he was looking to replicate the surface that produced the five-day thriller last year between Australia and India. He had left about 7mm of grass on that occassion whereas Smith said that he saw about 10mm on the eve of the match.