Ahead of the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test between India and Australia, Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) director Matt Page hinted at a 6mm thick turf for the playing surface, saying the surface will help Bowlers and sportsman batsmen.
With the series tied at 1-1, the two teams will play the much-anticipated Boxing Day Test from December 26, with the aim of securing a vital lead before the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) Advantages and Advantages.
Page told his pre-match press conference: “Well, look, I think we’ve been very happy with the service we’ve delivered over the past few years. We don’t see any reason to change that. I think we’ve had three wins so far. It’s been three great Test matches at this great stadium, so for us it’s trying to do something similar to what we’ve done over the past few years and create an exciting game.
Page said six millimeters of grass had been used on the pitch since the last few years and a lot of changes had been made to the pitch since the last seven years, when the pitch was much flatter to provide some help to the bowlers.
“Seven years ago we were pretty flat. We sat down as an organization and said we want to create more exciting games, more exciting Test matches, so we’re leaving them with more grass now. It makes the bowlers More involved in that, but once the new balls hit, they’re still good to hit, so we’ve been running at six mph over the last couple of years and we’ll monitor that as we get in, but we’ve had a little bit of a blast over the last couple of years. Very satisfied with the year.
Page said fast bowlers are now really excited about the idea of playing in Melbourne and while it’s not as fast bowling as Perth and Brisbane, there’s still quite a bit of pace here which makes it exciting.
Curators also highlighted Australia’s different types of pitches, describing them as “the beauty of Australian cricket”.
“Every pitch in Australia is so different these days. Perth, the pace, the bounce, if it gets hot you get cracks. Adelaide, the pink ball, swinging at night, while the Gabba is fast, there’s elasticity.
“Is it going to be played like everyone else? No. But that’s the beauty of Australian cricket is that from here they (India and Australia) go to Sydney and the game starts to spin. So, all the pitches are different. of.
Australian team: Pat Cummins (centre), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (centre), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Constace, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jay Richardson, Steve Smith (centre), Mitchell Starc, Beau webster
Team India: 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, Ravinsd Jja, Akkar Sh Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Substitutes: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khalil Ahmed, Yash Dayal.