MCG to host floodlit Test as Women's Ashes finale

The occasion will be the iconic venue's first women's Test since 1949, when an England side led by Betty Snowball drew over three days

Next year's Women's Ashes series in Australia will feature a day-night Test match at the MCG.

The occasion will be the iconic venue's first women's Test since 1949, when an England side led by Betty Snowball drew over three days. It will also be the stadium's first floodlit, day-night Test.

Perhaps the most significant first, though, is in a change to the scheduling, which will see the one-off Test come last in the multiformat series, beginning on January 30.

With the weighting of points seeing two points for a win in the T20Is and ODIs, the Test – which carries double the number of points for a win – has carried an enormous sway. Never in the seven series since becoming a multiformat event has a team lost the Test and won the Ashes.

But by placing the Test as the finale, it has the potential to produce a winner-takes-all scenario, the kind of which has never been achieved since the structural shift in 2013.

There have been final-game wins to secure series draws but never a result that has altered the destination of the trophy.

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^{The MCG hosted the Women's T20 World Cup final in 2020 (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)}

Had the Test come last in the 2023 summer, for example, after ODI and T20I series wins for England, Australia would have had to win at Trent Bridge to retain their title. They won on the fifth day in Nottingham, a luxury the sides will not have in Melbourne, with the Test reverting to a four-day affair. There will be some frustration that the series still only features a single Test.

The MCG isn't the only major Australian Test venue to feature across the seven-match schedule; the SCG and Adelaide Oval are both set to host T20Is, along with Manuka Oval, where Heather Knight has a hundred and four fifties in nine T20Is.

The ODIs, which begin the contest, is being staged at North Sydney Oval, Junction Oval and Bellerive Oval, with the series starting on January 12.

Pre-sale tickets become available on June 4 for supporters who have registered prior interest; Test Match Special have confirmed that they have radio rights to the series.

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