Image: India will begin their Test series at the Optus Stadium in Perth / © Indian Express
On November 22, the Border Gavaskar Trophy test series will begin with the first of five matches between India and Australia. The opening match will take place at Perth’s Optus Stadium, where a drop in pitch has been set up for the occasion.
Western Australia Cricket head curator, Isac McDonald, commented on Perth’s Optus Stadium pitch:
This is Australia, this is Perth. I’m setting ourselves up for a really good pace, really good bounce and really good carry. In a perfect world, I want to emulate last year. Ten millimeters was pretty comfortable with the conditions that we had last year and that held the conditions together nicely for the first few days. Live grass on the pitch is speed. Both bowling units were pretty rapid last year and hoping for much the same this year. But, as we saw last year, good batters were able to take the game on and put away balls and score runs quickly.
According to the curator, the pitch is regaining its well-known fast and bouncy nature, similar to how it played during last year’s match against Pakistan. He expects it to offer the same challenging conditions for the upcoming test series, with the surface favoring pace and bounce, which could make it a testing track for the players right from the start of the game.