THE life was sucked out of the Fourth Test by a Pitch that had all of the tempo and bounce of final night time's leftover beer.

England tried, how they tried, however they have been confronted by a surface so moribund that it might have damaged the guts of any bowler.

And, with Moeen Ali in need of type and confidence and hardly used by Joe Root, the choice of England's supposed frontline spinner taking wickets on the fifth day was nearly eradicated.

England taking simply two wickets on the ultimate day tells its personal story.

Michael Vaughan, the previous England captain, summed up the overall temper when he tweeted: "Let's be trustworthy, this pitch is a stinker for Test cricket."

It was a drop-in pitch, which suggests it was grown in a tray in a greenhouse away from the bottom and actually transported by an enormous lorry and dropped into an area in the center of the bottom.

The reason being that, like many different Aussie cricket stadia, the MCG is used for the Aussie Guidelines soccer code and gamers don't need to be diving round on a rock-arduous everlasting sq..

The opposite drop-in pitch in Australia in on the Adelaide Oval whereas the remainder of the Test grounds have conventional squares from which 22-yard strips are minimize.

How troublesome can it’s to supply drop-in pitches with respectable tempo and bounce?

Definitely, to play the flagship match of the Australian cricketing summer time — the Boxing Day Test — on such a flat deck does no one any favours.

Maybe they need to convey over some clay and soil from Perth, the place the pitch has all the time had some tempo and bounce.

Oh, that's one other factor. The well-known WACA floor won’t be used for any extra Ashes Checks.

In future, they are going to be performed on the new multi-sports Optus Stadium, full with a drop-in pitch.

• BT Sport is the one place to observe the Ashes reside from Australia.