India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal during a training session at Adelaide Oval on December 03, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

The guardians of the 22-yards that matter in cricket, are often secretive about the surfaces they offer. The Adelaide Oval’s head curator Damian Hough, while believing in the mystique of a pitch, still held a mirror to the turf that would play host to the second Test, a day-and-night fixture, between Australia and India here from Friday (December 6, 2024).

Also read:Alex Carey backs Australia’s ‘world-class’ batters to counter Bumrah threat

Talking to the media on a sunny Wednesday (December 4, 2024) morning, Damian said: “We are happy about where we are today, the compaction and the moisture is where we want it to be. You do adapt every year, get some finer details in. It is coarse matted grass, even grass cover, good with regard to moisture, but dry and hard, so something where the quicks will get a bit out of it, spinners will be able to get some light turn and bounce, but also important for us to get some partnerships with the players and the batters to be able to play their shots.”

As for the granular detail about the grass, Damian was quick to reply: “Should be around six millimetres.” And when queried again about the pitch, the curator remained guarded: “All we do is try and produce a pitch that provides an even contest between bat and ball.”

With all the talk about pace, Damian was quick to point out the venue’s soft corner for spin: “Be assured, at the Adelaide Oval, traditionally spin plays a role and we don’t see that changing.” The weather, though, might queer the pitch and Damian added: “Looks like some storms on Friday. Hopefully it clears out Saturday morning and it should be good for the remainder of the Test.”

Team India begin practice session for the pink ball Test in Adelaide from December 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: ANI

In cricket, Indian players are the rock stars. A routine pre-game training session at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday (December 3, 2024), acquired a festival air as nearly 3000 fans thronged the venue, lending their full-throated acoustics as an accompaniment to the thwack of the pink ball thudding into an eager bat. As Sania Mirza once said about Indian fandom, truly ‘we are so many of us!’

Camera-phones got busy, photos taken, calls made, social media was spammed and cries of ‘Kohli’ and ‘Rohit’ rent the air. Seemingly immune to this external noise, the cricketers got down to the business of sweating it out while the venue’s guards were perplexed at all this attention. There was a scramble for space around the nets before a tiny area was earmarked for the media.

The coffee shop quickly ran out of food and beverages, while snatches of Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil and Kannada were heard in the background. Be it Aaron Finch in 2019 or Pat Cummins now, all Australian captains have spoken about how they are all used to this overwhelming Indian presence across the globe. It was the turn of the Adelaide Oval to reiterate this truth.

Initially the fans were stumped as Rohit and Rishabh Pant turned in an hour early and sought their quiet time. All it needed was for a few to spot them and then the rush began. One youngster moved to the side of the net and said: “Hello Rohit.” The skipper politely told the intrusive follower to move further away and watch. The batters then got into their groove, and swapped their sessions against throw-downs and regular bowlers.

Rohit asked his friend and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar about his impressions. The latter spoke about some changes spotted in the former’s initial trigger movement. Rohit clarified that he is aware and then spoke about countering the angle of left-arm speedsters, obviously a veiled reference to Mitchell Starc. The sessions continued and Pant was astounded that Rohit could tackle the light and shadow variance on his pitch as the sun descended.

As word spread, more turned up through the gates past the River Torrens. Meanwhile, the full squad appeared and indulged in a spot of kick-volleyball, a sport in which only legs are employed and some rare headers are dished out. There was laughter and some friendly arguments. Later it was all about fielding drills, and every catch taken evoked the applause befitting a goal scored in a football World Cup’s summit clash.

Soon, it was again time for nets with Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.L. Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rohit, Pant and Washington Sundar being the first set of batters at work. Jasprit Bumrah and his pack, R. Ashwin and fellow spinners, were all in operation as the pink ball was dealt with under the sun and floodlights. These training programs will surely get more intense as India gears up for the day-and-night second Test in Adelaide from Friday (December 6, 2024).

Gautam Gambhir was a watchful presence at the Adelaide Oval. The Indian coach, who had returned home for personal reasons after the first Test at Perth, arrived here in the early hours of Tuesday (December 3, 2024). The former India opener kept an eye on his wards as Rohit Sharma’s men had their first training session in the lead-up to the second Test

Australia’s Travis Head prepares for the second Test against India in Adelaide, reflecting on past successes and facing formidable challenges.
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Under quirky Adelaide skies, sunny at one point, damp at another, Travis Head always feels at home. Back in his city in the lead-up to the second Test against India from Friday (December 6, 2024), Head is looking for clues from the past and equally gazing with hope into the immediate future.

In his previous two Tests at the Adelaide Oval, Head was adjudged as the ‘player-of-the-match’. Against India, he held his own in the first Test at Perth while many would recall his hundred in the 2023 ICC World Cup final that deflated Rohit Sharma’s men at Ahmedabad. Add to it India’s 36 during the 2020 Test here, and Head can surely lean on this rich vein of historical optimism.

But he is acutely conscious of India’s strengths quadrupled by Jasprit Bumrah’s role as a spearhead. “I am lucky that I have faced him a few times and I know what’s coming, just need to start well. He is unique. Jasprit is probably going to go down as one of the greatest fast bowlers and it will be nice to tell the grandkids that I faced him,” Head told the media in Adelaide on Monday (December 2, 2024).

The 295-run loss at Perth has been dealt with and Head elaborated: “We didn’t have a very good week but we have got four more opportunities. The writing was on the wall pretty quickly in that Test and we were pushing uphill.”

For the southpaw, the pink ball in the day and night Test in Adelaide, is no threat: “It’s still a game of cricket. It’s just a pink ball coming down, you face it in the same way and you have got to react to it the same way.”

Admitting an injured Josh Hazlewood will be missed, Head was quick to praise the reserve strength: “Josh is a huge loss but we have got some pretty good stocks in the sheds with Scott (Boland), Sean (Abbott) and (Brendan) Doggett.”