Australia's Boxing Day Test against England could have a crowd of more than 80,000, a senior official said as Melbourne emerges from one of the world's most prolonged series of Covid lockdowns, according to AFP.

How many spectators, if any, would be allowed into the cavernous Melbourne Cricket Ground for the third Ashes Test has long been up in the air.

But with the nation's second biggest city re-opening on Friday after more than 260 days under lockdown since the pandemic began, Victoria state Premier Dan Andrews was hopeful it will be jam-packed.

“I want to see 80,000-plus people at the Boxing Day Test on day one, that's what I want to see,” he told reporters in flagging a further planned easing of Covid restrictions.