The unseasonal rain in Perth hasn’t allowed the ground staff at the Optus Stadium to prepare the pitch for the first Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test in their traditional way, but it will still have a fair bit of standing grass to offer “variable bounce”, according to the curator Isaac McDonald.
“Yeah, it’s definitely not traditional Perth Test prep,” the curator said on Wednesday, as quoted by Fox Cricket.
What the wet weather will also do is prevent those “big snake” cracks in the 22-yard strip, something which has been usual at the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) grounds over the years.
The wicket remained under covers for the entire Tuesday, which may affect the usual fast and bouncy nature of the wicket. But despite little sunlight to harden the surface in the lead-up to the first Test beginning November 22, McDonald was confident that the surface won’t fall apart and will continue to make life a little difficult for the batters.
“We are sitting quite comfortable still,” said McDonald. “It would be nice if the sun would pop out and do its job, but as of this morning we are in a good spot, we are really comfortable as a curating team.
“I don’t think the weather is going to make this pitch fall apart. There will be some deterioration, grass will stand up during the game and offer that variable bounce; but in terms of big snake WACA cracks, unfortunately I don’t think the weather is going to get us there…We are testing the wicket hour by hour, so it’s quite conditions based at the moment.”
India trained largely at the WACA stadium, just a five-minute drive from the Optus, that offers similar pitch conditions as the designated venue of the series opener. The bounce there saw KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan getting hit during one of the sessions.
And with the kind of grass the Optus curator is promising, batters on both sides can expect the ball whistling past them, especially in the morning sessions.
“We have still got to try and get to a point where we think we are going to be fine by Friday. We are still in and around the ballpark; 8 to 10 mm (grass) was where we were last year as well,” he said. “There is still really good pace and bounce in the pitch.”
On being asked what he thinks the captain who wins the toss should opt to do, McDonald was cheeky in his reply.
“It’s way above my pay grade (to comment on that) mate,” he said.
“I think we are setting ourselves up really nicely for it. All things are leading to getting that pitch rock hard come Friday morning and as I said people above my pay grade will get to choose and see what they do.”
