Even though the current focus for the England players and the fans is on the current five-match Test series against India at home, they have an eye on the upcoming Ashes 2025/26 trip to Australia. It could be the last tour for many veteran players, and they won’t want to lose an opportunity to get the urn back, which they lost in 2017/18.

Surprisingly, the Ben Stokes-led side hasn’t won a single Test in their last three trips to Australia, which includes one whitewash of 5-0 and two margins of 4-0. But the pitches are going to be under the scanner for the series, as the former captain, Ricky Ponting, reacted during a recent interaction on Sky Sports Cricket.

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‘The pink ball Test is hard to play with the brand new ball as well as in the evening session. In Brisbane, on Day 1, it’s a challenge early on. It can get better as the game goes on. The MCG one is interesting because that’s probably been the hardest wicket to bat on in the last four or five years because they got a point to do that. They got a poor rating for two to three years in a row. If they produce another Test match like that, they would have lost the game.’ Ponting expressed during the discussion.

Watch: Ricky Ponting analyzes pitch conditions for Ashes 2025/26

Ponting clarified that the recent surfaces at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) have changed because the club is getting a few poor ratings. He stated how the groundsmen kept leaving 8 mm grass when Scott Boland returned with figures of 6/7.

How tough will the pitches be in Australia for batters in the Ashes? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/asX6hleUfY

— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 26, 2025

‘MCG goes back to redo the dropping. In Melbourne, for the last two to three years, they had nearly 8 mm of grass on it, and Stuart Broad was talking about it earlier that Scott Boland’s debut against England when he got a 6-fer. That’s not characteristic of what MCG used to be.’ The Tasmania-born reckoned.

The pressure, among the batters, will be on Joe Root, who hasn’t yet celebrated a single Test century in Australia but will have an eye on that monkey to take off his shoulders. After all, he is currently the second leading run-getter of the format in the all-time list.