We are just a sleep away from the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth. However, the rare spring rain in the city has made pitch curation a challenge for the team at the stadium. As per the head curator, Isaac McDonalds, this unseasonal rain, which is forecasted to persist as late as the evening before the opening Test, has taken Perth’s characteristic ‘big-snake cracks’ out of the equation. While the pitch curators have decided to leave 8-10mm of grass on the surface, they cannot emulate a similar pitch done for Pakistan last summer.
Despite that and losing one day of preparation to the rain, the head curator remains positive about the pitch condition as of now.
“Yesterday, we pretty much lost the whole day of prep with it [pitch] being under cover. We saw the forecast early on, and we started prep a little bit earlier than we normally would.” McDonald said while talking to the reporters on Wednesday.
“We’re sitting quite comfortable and having quite open conversations within the curating team of what we feel is appropriate and where to go from there. There’s still be really good pace and bounce in the pitch.”
He believes the deck is unlikely to ‘fall apart’ as is the case with pitches at the venue, especially by the time the game reaches Day 4 or 5, there will be sufficient assistance for the bowlers to exploit.
“I don’t think this weather is going to make this pitch fall apart. 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.”
In the absence of the sun, the curators are using heavy rolling to ensure that the ground stays firm and bouncy by the time the first ball of the Test is bowled.
“At the moment, we’re leaning towards rolling it a bit more on top to get that firmness, and that happy medium between bat and ball. [It] would be nice if the sun pops out, but we’re really comfortable as a curating team.” McDonald said.
Fortunately, the weekend is expected to be drier with the possibility of the sun shining throughout. This could further bake the pitch and pace up the deterioration process. The head curator said that the key to bowling decent would lie in how a team takes care of the ball to get the maximum from the pitch.
“It’ll just come in how well they look after the ball and how true the surface stays. We’re meant to get to 30-32 degrees over the weekend so we’ll see what the grass on top does there but in terms of coming off cracks I just don’t think we’re going to get there.”
The last Test played at this venue was in December last year in December when Australia faced Pakistan. The surface was deadly for the batters, especially during the later part of the game. Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja received what looked like painful blows off pacers’ deliveries on Day 4, thanks to the cracks that had opened in the surface after three days of play. This was not a rarity at this venue, especially during the summer. The surface might not offer as deadly bounce and zing this time but it still would be enough to bother batters big time.
