Ahead of the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) head curator Matt Page hinted at 6 millimetres of grass being used on the pitch for the game, saying that surface will help both bowlers and batters. With the series level at 1-1, both teams will be playing the highly-anticipated Boxing Day Test from December 26 onwards, with an aim to secure an all-important lead and an edge ahead of the final Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
Speaking ahead of the match in a pre-match presser, Page said, “Well, look, I guess we have been really happy with what we have served up the last couple of years. We do not see any reason to change from that. I guess we have seen three fantastic Test matches so far on three great pitches, so for us, it’s trying to do something similar to what we have done the last couple of years and create a thrilling contest.”
Page said that since the last couple of years, six millimetres of grass is being used on the pitch and there has been plenty of changes in the pitch made since the last seven years, when it used to be much flatter, in order to give bowlers some help.
“Seven years ago, we were quite flat. We sat down as an organisation and said we want to create more exciting contests, more exciting test matches, so we leave more grass on them now. That brings the bowlers into it a bit more, but they are still good for batting once the new ball goes off. So we have been running at six mils the last couple of years. We will sort of monitor that as we get in, but we have been really happy with the last couple of years, so it is a rinse and repeat job for us at this stage,” he said.
Page said that fast bowlers do get excited now at the idea of playing at Melbourne, and while it cannot be as quick as Perth and Brisbane pitches, there is still quite a lot of pace on here which makes matches exciting.
The curator also highlighted the different types of pitches in Australia, calling it a “beauty of Australian cricket”.
“Every pitch in Australia is so different these days. Perth, pace, bounce and you get cracks if it gets hot. Adelaide, the pink ball, swings around over the night time and the Gabba is quick, bouncy. So we are not like that. We do not have the extreme pace like Perth and Brisbane and we do not have that pink ball. So, for us, we will get as much pace and bounce in it as we can.”
“Will it play like the others? No. But that is the beauty of Australian cricket is that they (India and Australia), when leave from here, they go to Sydney and it spins.So, all the pitches are different. As I say, we will get as much pace (12:41) and bounce in it as we can. Sideways movement and then give the batters a chance at some point in the game. But will we be like Perth? No,” he added.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal.
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