20 November,2024 04:52 PM IST | Perth | mid-day online correspondent
Team India`s huddle during Tuesday`s practice session (Pic: @bcci/X)
The Optus Stadium at Perth, the venue of the highly-anticipated first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia, has become a subject of intrigue ahead of the clash. With both teams boasting world-class pace and spin options, both teams are finalising their team combinations as per conditions.
With their ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final spots at stake amid tough competition from Sri Lanka, South Africa, and New Zealand, both sides would be aiming to make the best use of Perth's usual fast and bouncy surface.
The venue is a pace-dominated venue, with Australian pacers outdoing the visiting pace attacks with their average of 22.04 as compared to 36.53 by visiting pacers. Coming to spinners, the Aussie tweakers have an average of 18.61 as compared to a poor average of 108.50 by visiting spinners.
Even though the surface is friendly to pace and offers bounce, there is a threat of Nathan Lyon dominating at the venue. Since the 2018-19 season, Lyon has taken 27 wickets here at an average of 18.00 in four matches, with best figures of 6/128.
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Lyon has delivered 187.3 of the 217.2 overs by Aussie spinners here. However, very few visiting teams have played a specialist spinner here. Mitchell Santner, Salman Ali Agha, and Roston Chase are three names.
Isaac McDonald, who is overseeing the preparations for the third Test strip, is expecting quicks to enjoy "good pace and bounce" in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series opener between India and Australia.
However, the weather forecast has been something to keep an eye on after several weather reports suggested unseasonal rain. In the past couple of days, there has been some rain in Perth, leading to the non-traditional preparation for the series opener.
"Yeah, it is definitely not traditional Perth Test prep weather at all. Yesterday, we pretty much lost the whole day of prep, with it being under the cover. So we kind of saw the forecast early on, and we started to prep a little bit earlier than we normally would," McDonald told reporters ahead of the first Test on Friday.
"So we were sitting quite comfortably. Still, it would be nice if the sun would pop out and do its job. But as of this morning, we are in a good spot. We are really comfortable as a curating team," he added.
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With a slight chance of weather impacting the time of play, the pitch could be affected if the rain worsens. Under such circumstances, the 27-year-old is not expecting the pitch to fall apart but only deteriorate as the game progresses.
"I do not think this weather is going to make this pitch fall apart as there will be some deterioration. Grass will stand up during the game and offer that variable bounce. I think there would still be good pace and bounce on the pitch. It'll just come in. How well they look after the ball and how true the surface stays," McDonald noted.
(With ANI inputs)
