Will Australia continue their relentless march towards a whitewash or will England finally manage to stop them. Warne’s last home match and he is one away from 700 wicket. The series might be decided but there is plenty to play for. Should be an interesting match.
Australia v England - 4th Test
Fourth Test, Melbourne:
Australia v England
Match starts at 2330 GMT on 25 December
England will be looking to stave off the first Ashes whitewash since 1920/21 when the fourth Test starts at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day.
But with Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath retiring from Test cricket at the end of the series, Australia will be fully focused on a clean sweep.
Warne, playing on his home ground, needs just one more wicket to become the first man to take 700 in Tests.
A world record crowd of 100,000 is expected on the opening day.
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All tickets have been sold for Boxing Day to surpass the 90,800 for the second day of the fifth Test against the West Indies at the MCG in February 1961.
And Warne, who can expect an emotional send-off in his 144th Test, is keen on another humiliation of England.
“As far as I’m concerned we’ve got two Test matches to play and I just want to finish the series on a high,” Warne said.
“I think if we can win 5-0 that would be a fantastic achievement for a great team.”
With team departures dominating headlines ahead of the Melbourne Test and the Ashes already regained, Australia captain Ricky Ponting has warned his side against complacency.
“The pressure’s off now, (England) have got nothing to lose in this series, they can come out and not think too much about the results of the games,” said Ponting.
"Sides can be really dangerous in this sort of situation, I think, as we’ve found before.
“We have to make sure we don’t give them that opportunity to play the sort of cricket they want to play.”
Australia, who should be unchanged for the fourth Test, took just 15 days to seize the urn off England and the much-anticipated series has been a huge let-down.
The home side have only been dismissed twice in six innings and the sorry England performance has left coach Duncan Fletcher under intense pressure going into the final two games.
One casualty in Melbourne is likely to be wicket-keeper Geraint Jones, who registered a pair of ducks in Perth and has scored only 63 runs at 10.50 in the series.
Nottinghamshire’s Chris Read is expected to be behind the stumps, while Middlesex all-rounder Jamie Dalrymple could replace Saj Mahmood with a view to strengthen the batting.
“I don’t feel that great at the moment, coming off a pair in Perth - my first ducks in Test cricket,” Jones told the Herald Sun.
"Obviously I’ll be disappointed (if I’m dropped). You never like being left out of the side.
“But I’ll give him (Read) my support because that’s something he’s given me when I’ve been playing.”
Flintoff says the ankle problem that has stopped him bowling long spells so far in the series has been eased by pain-killing injections,
And he is determined his side will bounce back, especially with a large proportion of the crowd expected to be England fans.
“It hurts a lot, but we have to get over losing the Ashes and we’ve got two big Test matches still to play,” he said.
"There are a lot of lads who want to prove they can win a Test match in Australia and prove they can play against Australia.
“As well as playing for ourselves and the country we want to play for the supporters who have made the trip.”
Meanwhile, England seamer Matthew Hoggard admitted another Australia win could have deep psychological repercussions.
“We have got to prove to the guys on the tour, to ourselves, that we can beat Australia,” Hoggard said.
"We have shown glimpses of what we can do, we have had some good performances, some good individual performances over three games.
“We need to not get mentally scarred, saying Australia are unbeatable, because it’s going to be a different story in 2009, and different personnel.”
**With attendances of more than 95,000 likely over the opening three days, the record of 350,354 - set in the third Test of the 1936/37 Ashes series - is set to fall. **
**However, with showers forecast for the first day followed by overcast conditions, a new record - and an Australian whitewash - could be under threat. **
Australia (from): R Ponting (captain), J Langer, M Hayden, M Hussey, M Clarke, A Symonds, A Gilchrist, S Warne, B Lee, S Clark, G McGrath, M Johnson.
England (from): A Flintoff (captain), A Strauss, A Cook, I Bell, P Collingwood, K Pietersen, G Jones, C Read, M Hoggard, S Mahmood, S Harmison, M Panesar.
Umpires: A Dar (Pak), R Koertzen (SA)](“BBC SPORT | Video and Audio | Help Guide | Guide to BBC Sport Video and Audio”)
