Australia to host England at MCG for historic day-night Test match in 2025 as part of Women's Ashes

Australia will host England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a historic day-night Test match in 2025, Cricket Australia has confirmed.

The Australian summer schedule was confirmed on Tuesday morning UK time, and as part of the upcoming Women’s Ashes, Australia and England will play the solitary Test of the series at the legendary MCG.

It is the first women’s Test match to be played at the MCG since the 1948-49 series, and will be 90 years since the first Test series between Australia and England’s women in 1934-5.

"It's an amazing opportunity for the team to play at such an iconic Australian cricket venue and in such a big occasion like an Ashes series," Australian superstar Ellyse Perry said.

"I think we all saw that fixture and thought what an amazing opportunity and how much possibility that also carries in terms of what it could do for the game."

Before the Test, the two teams will play three ODI matches and three T20Is as part of the series.

However, there has been plenty of debate over the fact that the Test will be a four-day game using the pink ball, with many fans demanding it be played as a five-day series.

The four-day Tests are played with 100 overs per day, compared to 90 for a five-day series so the match as a whole ends up being 50 overs shorter.

When that was put to Perry, she said that her leaning is towards the five-day game but that more research probably needs to be done about what is most effective for the future of the women’s game.

"My thoughts on that is that we probably need to do some more quantifiable work on what is most effective for the women's game," Perry said.

"I've got a really small sample size of one five-day Test match, and we managed to get a result in that. So I suppose my bias skews towards that, having played a number of four-day games where we haven't got results.

"But it's so contextual to the venue that you play at, your opposition as well and just various other conditions. But I think going forward, this is going to be a question that keeps popping up until we're able to really ascertain what is most effective for women's Test matches.

"I think we're probably going to have to play some more five-day games to figure that out and what level that's at I'm not sure.”

As part of the schedule release, CA also confirmed the upcoming schedule for the men’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India.

In what will be a repeat of the most recent World Test Championship final, the legendary rivals will do battle once more, this time in five Tests.

The first will be played in Perth on November 22 before going to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and finally Sydney for the Pink Test to wrap up the series.

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