Perth Stadium pitch curator Isaac McDonald said he's prepared a good enough pitch for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and there would be enough pace, bounce, and carry, something India's top order will have to be wary of. The WACA ground, not much cricket is played there anymore, provided a lot of pace earlier, and pitch at the Optus Stadium might resemble that.
The drop-in track for the series-opener Test between India and Australia beginning on November 22 was moved into the Optus Stadium's playing surface in October having been curated for a whole month before that.
The first Test will be the fifth Test at the Burswood Stadium, which hasn't yet attracted a large crowd like Australia's other venues. In fact, the first Test here also had India and Australia in action in December 2018, when Australia comprehensively defeated India by 146 runs on the back of eight wickets taken by Nathan Lyon. Virat Kohli scored 123 in the first innings itself.
"This is Australia, this is Perth. I'm setting ourselves up for a really good pace, really good bounce and really good carry. In a perfect world, I want to emulate last year," McDonald told ESPNCricinfo.
Last year in Perth, Australia faced Pakistan and an all-round performance from Mitchell Marsh saw them win by a whopping 360 runs.
"It's [10 mm grass] a good starting point. Ten millimetres was pretty comfortable with the conditions that we had [last year] and that held the conditions together nicely for the first few days. Live grass on the pitch is speed," McDonald said.
"Both bowling attacks were pretty sharp last season and looking for a lot of the same this season. But, as we learned last season, good batsmen were able to take it upon themselves and play shots and get balls out quickly and score," McDonald said.
Only Kohli has a century at the Optus Stadium in Perth. At WACA, batting great Sachin Tendulkar, Mohinder Amarnath and Sunil Gavaskar also scored hundreds.
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