Steve Smith clean bowled in MCG testImage Credit source: Graham Denholm – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images
Australia has once again won the Ashes series. Playing at home, Australia again defeated England by winning the first three test matches. But amid all this, the form of the team’s star batsman Steve Smith remains a cause for concern, who has not been able to play any big innings for some time. His failure continued in the fourth Test match of the series in Melbourne and once again he became the victim of the bowler who has dismissed Smith every time. This bowler is Josh Tong.
Captain Smith also failed
Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) from Friday 26 December ‘Boxing Day’ test match Started. Due to the absence of captain Pat Cummins, Smith was once again given the command of the Australian team in this match. He was the captain of the team in the first and second test matches also. But this time they had a bad start and after losing the toss on the green pitch of MCG, they had to come out to bat first. This had its effect and Australia lost 3 wickets for only 34 runs in the first session.
From here, it was a big responsibility on Captain Smith to get the team out of this difficult situation. This was expected considering Smith’s excellent record at MCG. But this time in Melbourne he could not show his talent and returned to the pavilion after scoring only 9 runs. The reason for this was fast bowler Josh Tong. While trying to drive an excellent ball from this right-arm pacer, Smith missed it completely and his wickets were blown away. In this way, once again Tong destroyed the Australian giant and the team also lost its fourth wicket by only 51 runs.
WHAT A DELIVERY!
Steve Smith looks on puzzled after this peach from Josh Tongue.#Ashes , #PlayoftheDay , @nrmainsurance pic.twitter.com/NpkEgGxOQR
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 26, 2025
How often did Josh Tongue hunt Smith?
The interesting thing is that every time Josh Tong has faced Smith in every format and level of cricket, he has made the Australian superstar his victim the same number of times. Before this Test, Tong had bowled to Smith in the 2023 Lord’s Test and dismissed him in both the innings. Once he bowled to Smith in the County Championship and got him out in that innings too. Not only this, Smith and Tong faced each other in ‘The Hundred’ tournament and here too the English pacer was successful.
Smith’s failure continues in the Ashes
As far as Smith is concerned, his average performance continues in the third consecutive Ashes. After scoring more than 700 record runs in the Ashes played in England in 2019, Smith has not been able to do anything special in this series. After that, this is the third Ashes series in which Smith is playing and in this he has been able to score only 729 runs in 24 innings of 13 test matches, in which he has been able to score only one century and 5 half-centuries. During this period his average has also been only 34.