{"id":370165,"date":"2025-12-25T03:34:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T03:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370165\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T03:34:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T03:34:18","slug":"the-ashes-england-players-don-santa-hats-and-kick-soccer-balls-in-low-key-christmas-day-training-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370165\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ashes: England players don Santa hats and kick soccer balls in low-key Christmas Day training session"},"content":{"rendered":"

England\u2019s under-fire cricketers have donned Santa hats during a low-key Christmas Day training session in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

And Australia\u2019s stars \u2014 who have already sewn up an Ashes series triumph with an unassailable 3-0 lead \u2014 took to the MCG with their families ahead of Friday\u2019s Boxing Day Test.<\/p>\n

The tourists are weathering a storm of criticism after revelations their mid-series trip to Noosa resembled a \u201cstag-do\u201d and vision emerged of misfiring opener Ben Duckett where he appeared to be heavily intoxicated.<\/p>\n

\"EnglandCamera IconEngland players donned Santa hats on Christmas morning. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s training session was England\u2019s most jovial of the tour. They played soccer on the MCG outfield and were joined by their families \u2014 who are on this leg of the trip at the England and Wales Cricket Board\u2019s expense \u2014 for a light-hearted run around.<\/p>\n

Harry Brook even briefly batted in a red and white Santa hat in a casual mood that goes against the mounting pressure he is facing after a string of poor performances.<\/p>\n

Both teams\u2019 Christmas morning sessions were optional before players, families and staff gathered for separate lunch functions.<\/p>\n

\"AustralianCamera IconAustralian players spent the morning with family on the MCG. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images\"AustralianCamera IconAustralian players spent the morning with family on the MCG. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

England captain Ben Stokes moved his pre-match media commitments to Wednesday, where he pleaded for empathy from the public amid their poor performances and questionable off-field behaviour.<\/p>\n

Steve Smith \u2014 who will stand-in as Australia\u2019s captain with Pat Cummins ruled out of the rest of the Ashes \u2014 did front the media on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

Smith confirmed West Australian Josh Inglis has been dropped, with selectors preferring veteran Usman Khawaja, but fast bowler Jhye Richardson is on the cusp of completing a remarkable comeback and playing his first Test match in four years.<\/p>\n

\"AustralianCamera IconAustralian players spent the morning with family on the MCG. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images\"AustralianCamera IconAustralian players spent the morning with family on the MCG. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Richardson looms as a massive trump card for Australia as they try and put their foot on England\u2019s throats and complete their third Ashes whitewash in the past two decades.<\/p>\n

The stand-in Aussie captain even admitted he was feeling for his England counterparts<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re losing, the spotlight is always on you and things can get spoken about and get blown up pretty heavily,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel for them in a way, it can be tricky, you\u2019re in a country where you can go out and about and enjoy yourselves, with big breaks you\u2019ve got to experience the country that you\u2019re in as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a pretty big break in between and sometimes … you\u2019ve got to get away from the game and put it out of your mind and just relax for a little bit too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith checked out the MCG wicket on Christmas morning with his father Peter, while teammates, including Adelaide heroes Travis Head, Alex Carey and Usman Khawaja, played with their children on the field.<\/p>\n

\"AustralianCamera IconAustralian players spent the morning with family on the MCG. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images\"AustralianCamera IconAustralian players spent the morning with family on the MCG. Credit: Morgan Hancock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Head \u2014 who led the celebrations in the wake of Australia sealing an Ashes victory in South Australia last week \u2014 is the most prolific of the players at the lunch table, Smith joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have a nice lunch together this afternoon and enjoy each other\u2019s company and get ourselves ready for an exciting Boxing Day tomorrow in front of a packed house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of guys, just mainly the batters, just come down and hit a couple of balls and get out of here and enjoy the festivities of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Travis Head\u2019s looking forward to lunch and he gets stuck into the prawns, he\u2019ll have more than everyone I can assure you. It\u2019s going to be a cool day with all the families around and we\u2019ll get ready for a sell-out tomorrow here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an amazing atmosphere and we\u2019re looking forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As many as 20,000 travelling English fans \u2014 including the Barmy Army \u2014 who are Down Under for the festive season are tipped to flock to the MCG on Boxing Day, despite their team already being punted out of the Ashes.<\/p>\n

They will form part of a sell-out crowd that could get to near 100,000 on the opening day.<\/p>\n

After Melbourne sweated through last year\u2019s scorching-hot Boxing Day Test \u2014 which the high-drama of Sam Konstas\u2019 debut innings and a thrilling final session victory \u2014 this year the Victorian capital is unseasonably cold.<\/p>\n

Players trained in jumpers on Thursday amid a high of 17 degrees, with similar conditions forecast for the first day of the Test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England\u2019s under-fire cricketers have donned Santa hats during a low-key Christmas Day training session in Melbourne. And Australia\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85,33383],"class_list":{"0":"post-370165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-the-ashes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}