It is the clash of the Titans at the Optus Stadium in Perth tomorrow (Friday) as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy gets underway. The Test rivalry between India and Australia is on par with the Ashes and the much-anticipated series will get underway in Perth, the venue more suited to the home side. However, the weather here is not great at the moment and for the same reason, doubts about the pitch have been raised.
Famously, the surface in Perth is known to generate cracks, especially from the third or fourth day while it is fast bouncy to start with posing massive challenges for batters from both teams. It rained in the hottest city in Australia on Wednesday (November 20) and it will remain cloudy on the eve of the match as well according to Accuweather. There are 20-34% chances of rain in the lead-up to the Test match which is concerning.
In fact, there are 58% chances of heavens opening up today at 11 PM local time, and there will be overnight rain as well from 2 to 3 AM, only a few hours before the match begins. However, the sun is expected to be out as early as 6 AM, and there will be intermittent clouds when the match begins at 10:20 AM local time, with the temperature likely to be around 20 Degrees Celsius.
The unseasonal rain must have certainly altered the curator's plans to prepare a fast and bouncy pitch that emulates last summer's Australia vs Pakistan Test played here. In that Test match, the pitch deteriorated as the match progressed with big snake cracks visible on the surface at least for the last two days.
"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. 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.
"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," WA Cricket head curator said on Wednesday (November 20) morning.
