Melbourne [Australia], December 23 (ANI): Ahead of the Boxing Day Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) head curator Matt Page on Monday said that they haven’t altered the pitch of the stadium because of the balls.
The Kookaburra ball used in Australia has a less prominent seam and softens earlier, making it more difficult for bowlers to master than the Dukes, which aid in seam and swing bowling.
The series is currently tied at 1-1 after India secured a draw in the third Test in Brisbane. The Boxing Day Test will kick off on December 26 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Speaking at a press conference, Page said that the pitch will give the bowlers an opportunity at various points in the game and will also provide the batters a chance.
“Nah, so we haven’t altered our pitches because of the balls. We’ve basically like I said, we sat down probably seven years ago, after 2017, and discussed where we wanted to go as an organisation and what we wanted to be renowned for, and that’s produced in test matches that are going to provide a thrilling contest, I guess. It gives the bowlers an opportunity at various points in the game, but it also gives the batters a chance too, if you play well,” Matt Page told the reporters.
The head curator added that earlier they had played around with our grass lengths of the pitch and after that, they reached the level where they wanted to get.
“So we then tried and played around with our grass lengths, our compaction levels, moisture levels, and that probably took us three years to where we wanted to get to, and then we’ve probably been, I would say the last two or three years, we’ve been quite consistent in what we’ve rolled out, and we leave a bit more grass on them now than what we used to, but it’s provided thrilling contests, and that’s what we want to do,” he added.
Earlier last week, Australia made a couple of changes to its squad, addressing the absence of Josh Hazlewood and concerns in the top order. The hosts have added Beau Webster, Jhye Richardson, and Sam Konstas have been added to the squad before the fourth Test match of the series.
After a mild side strain in the Perth Test which ruled him out of the second Adelaide Test, Hazlewood did return for the third match in Brisbane but faced a calf strain during the warm-up on the fourth day. He bowled one over and left the field for scans which confirmed the serious extent of his injury, ruling him out of the series.
In the first Test at Perth, Hazlewood had taken five wickets, including a four-wicket haul in the first innings. Scott Boland will likely take Hazlewood’s spot in Australia’s playing eleven for the fourth Test, held at the MCG, starting from December 26 onwards.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (C), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (VC), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster. (ANI)
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