India and Australia are likely to be greeted by a green pitch at the Adelaide Oval for the first Test of the four-match series starting Thursday, with the curator saying he has no intentions of cutting the thick cover of grass.
Adelaide Oval curator Damien Hough had prepared a green surface for the day-night Tests that were played at the ground and he intends to do the same for the Australia-India encounter, even though it won’t be played with a pink ball.
“We won’t do anything differently,” Hough told The Weekend Australian, as quoted by cricket.com.au. “The preparation will be the same. The only difference is we get the covers off earlier and we start earlier.
“We do the same preparation for red-ball cricket and pink-ball cricket at Shield level. The best way to get an even contest is to leave some grass on there and get that balance between bat and ball.
“Right now, we really feel that this is where it’s at for the pitch.”
The Adelaide Oval had hosted the first day-night Test in 2015, between Australia and New Zealand, which lasted three days. In 2016, Australia and South Africa played a D/N Test in Adelaide, which last four days. Last year, during the Ashes, the Adelaide day-night Test went into the first session of day five.
The India-Australia Test starting Thursday is not a day-night Test and will be played with the red Kookaburra ball. It will be interesting to see how the red ball behaves on a similar cover of grass. Suffice to say, the pace bowlers of both teams will be thrilled.
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