Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen Slam MCG Pitch After 20-Wicket Day

Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen criticised the MCG pitch after 20 wickets fell on the opening day, saying the pitch favoured bowlers too much.

Former England captain Alastair Cook has slammed the Melbourne Cricket Ground(MCG) pitch after a dramatic opening day of the Boxing Day Test. Both teams struggled as the ball swung and seamed throughout the day. Batters found it hard to judge bounce and no player reached a half-century.

A total of 20 wickets fell on Friday. Australia fell for 152 before dismissing England for 110. Cook opined that the surface leaned heavily toward bowlers.

“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,” he said while speaking on TNT Sports.

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“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 added.

Pietersen Questions Double Standards Over Pitch Criticism

Former cricketer Kevin Pietersen also criticised the MCG pitch. He noted that such pitches usually attract heavy criticism when similar scenes unfold in India. Pietersen added that the same standards should apply everywhere.

“India ALWAYS gets hammered when wickets fall like crazy on day 1 of a Test and so I hope that Australia gets the same scrutiny! Fair is fair!,” he wrote on X.

India ALWAYS gets hammered when wickets fall like crazy on day 1 of a Test and so I hope that Australia gets the same scrutiny!
Fair is fair!

— Kevin Pietersen🦏 (@KP24) December 26, 2025

This has marked the first time in 74 years that 20 wickets fell on the opening day of a Test in Australia. Josh Tongue also became the first England bowler in this century to take a five-wicket haul at the MCG and the first since 1998. The performance surpassed his previous Test best of 5 for 66.