England crash through Aussie top-order on Boxing Day

England have yielded a rare dominant session of their ill-fated Ashes campaign, leaving Australia reeling at lunch on Boxing Day.

After losing the toss and being sent in to bat, Australia crashed to 4-72 as paceman Josh Tongue justified England captain Ben Stokes's call to bowl first in the fourth Test.

Australia lost 3-7 in 34 balls as England's quicks, led by Tongue, capitalised on a MCG pitch with 10mm of grass on it.

Once Travis Head (12) chopped on to his stumps, his opening partner Jake Weatherald (10) and struggling No.3 Marnus Labuschagne (six) were both out as well shortly after.

Tongue claimed the prized wicket of Steve Smith (nine), back after recovering from the vertigo symptoms that ruled him out of Adelaide, with a ball that moved back to skittle his stumps.

Veteran Usman Khawaja (21no), who turned 39 last week, and in-form wicketkeeper Alex Carey (9no) are attempting to revive Australia's innings.

Recalled quick Gus Atkinson (1-12), back for the injured Jofra Archer, bowled with great control to remove Head.

Tongue picked up all the other wickets to head to lunch with figures of 3-24.

Labuschagne's catching has been a feature of this series, particularly some of his takes in Adelaide, but the No.3 is stumbling to the end of 2025.

Dropped for the tour of the West Indies, then recalled for the Ashes on the back of strong Sheffield Shield form, Labuschagne is averaging only 21.91 this year and 27.66 during this series.

After retaining the Ashes in only 11 days, Australia are trying to continue England's tour of misery by completing a 5-0 whitewash for the first time since 2013-14.

Archer, a rare highlight for England during this series, will miss the Melbourne and Sydney Tests with a side strain.

Out-of-form England No.3 Ollie Pope has been dropped, replaced by promising youngster Jacob Bethell.

Australia made three changes, headlined by fit-again Jhye Richardson's first Test for Australia in more than four years.

Richardson has joined Michael Neser, along with star left-armer Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland in the four-man pace attack.

Brendan Doggett is 12th man, after playing the first two Tests of the series, before making way in Adelaide.

It is the first red-ball Test of Neser's career, with all three of his other appearances coming in day-night matches.

With pace-friendly conditions expected for the duration of the match, Australia have boldly chosen to go without a frontline spinner in a home red-ball Test for the first time in almost 14 years.

Smith, replacing Pat Cummins as skipper, insisted Australia would have considered leaving Nathan Lyon out if he had been fit.

After being called into the squad to replace the injured Lyon, Victorian offspinner Todd Murphy was surprisingly left out of Australia's 12-man squad that Smith announced on Christmas Day.

It is the third time in their last five Tests Australia have chosen not to select a spinner, with Lyon dropped for the day-night matches in Kingston and Brisbane.

Despite Australia up 3-0 and having already retained the Ashes, interest in the Boxing Day Test is as strong as ever with a crowd of up to 90,000 expected at the MCG on day one.