India will take on Australia in the first of the five-match Test series at the Perth Stadium, the venue’s fifth encounter in the longest format. The two notable outings for the Indian team haven’t been memorable at the venue, the 2018 Test which Australia won rather comfortably and the T20 World Cup 2022 fixture where Lungi Ngidi ran riot on a surface that offered pace and bounce. India are battered and bruised, coming off a 3-0 hammering against New Zealand and will be without a few of their key players including skipper Rohit Sharma.
But when the odds are stacked against them, this team has shown that it can come out as a warrior and Perth happens to be the opening battlefield, where India didn’t play in the 2020-21 series, which was the biggest example of the fighting spirit.
Optus Stadium, Perth pitch report
Pakistan were shot out for 89 in the fourth innings in the Perth Test last summer in just 30.2 overs. The cracks had opened up and the ball was bouncing, staying low and doing all sorts of things. However, the Optus Stadium curator Isaac McDonald on Wednesday, November 20 confirmed that it won’t get to that stage this time around for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener mostly because of the weather.
McDonald told the reporters that his team didn’t get enough time until Tuesday to prepare the pitch as they would have liked since it was beneath the covers for the whole day, however, mentioned that it will help prevent it from getting to crack.
“I don’t think this weather is going to make this pitch fall apart,” he said. “There’ll 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’s going to get us there.”
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Going by McDonald’s words, it will be a traditional Perth wicket with pace and bounce with grass being left on the surface to hold it together and assist the seamers in particular for the first couple of days. The unseasonal overcast weather makes it for good prospect to bowl first after winning the toss, however, the main aim will be to wrap up the first innings below 250-300, otherwise, batting in fourth innings would get really difficult.
Expect a bowler-friendly, rather pacers friendly wicket and that the batters’ technique will be tested. However, as McDonald said their aim is to find a balance between bat and ball and as the likes of David Warner and Mitchell Marsh showed last year, if you apply, there are runs to be had here.
