New Delhi: Adelaide is currently basking in sunshine before the second Border-Gavaskar Test, a day-night match starts December 6. But pitch curator Damian Hough says thunderstorms could disrupt day one, with clear weather expected from day two.
On the 22 yards at the Adelaide Oval, six millimetres of grass has been left, which is a standard practice in day-night Tests to preserve the condition of the pink Kookaburra ball. Australia have won all seven of their pink-ball Tests in Adelaide, while India are playing a day-night Test for the first time after March 2022.
“Weather, yes, is a short answer to that (affecting the game). Right now, with over two days out from the first ball, it does look like Friday could be wet with some thunderstorms. We’ve had some unseasonable thunderstorms over the last few weeks. We’re normally quite dry in our climate, so we’ve had a few storms around.
“It looks like they’re around Friday, so I don’t know whether it’s going to be in the morning or in the afternoon. I’ll sort of look at that once we get the forecast in about three hours’ time, and have a better understanding what that looks like.
“It’s a little bit hit and miss, as in there’s two different models out there right now, one saying it’s going to come early and not be as bad during the game. The other one is it could be more around lunchtime and during the afternoon.
“We’ll wait and see, as it looks like it’s clearing out Saturday morning. On day one, we might lose a few overs, but from day two onwards, looks like the weather’s going to be good and we’ll be able to pick those overs back up hopefully,” said Hough to IANS in a select virtual interaction organised by Cricket Australia Wednesday.
The history of pink-ball Test cricket shows that batting during twilight poses the toughest challenges for batters. While Hough didn’t have definitive information, he felt the common view of twilight sessions being tough for batters was accurate.
“I just worry about the pitch preparation side of things, so I don’t talk to the players in-depth about what they find challenging. But history suggests that the nighttime session tends to liven up a little bit in regards to if a new ball, or there’s a declaration or they get them all out under lights in that last session with a couple of new batters.
“It seems to then take a bit more to get used to. If you’ve got a couple of players in, they can navigate through that a lot easier. I know that they found it hard in the early days to pick the seam and even with the spinners. So I know Kookaburra have done a lot of work in with the ball, but I don’t know the finer details.
“I sort of just focus on my role within the game and preparing the pitch. I don’t try to understand all of those other aspects of the game. Like, if I can get my side of it right with my team or then that plays a role in allowing the players to shine.”
Though pacers majorly call the shots in pink-ball Tests, Hough believes spinners can’t be kept completely aside, as seen from Nathan Lyon picking 51 wickets here and Ravichandran Ashwin taking a four-fer when India last played a pink-ball game in Adelaide in December 2020, though its more remembered for 36 all out happening in the morning session.
Hough recently was the pitch curator for the day-night Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and Western Australia, which ended in a draw due to rain majorly dominating the proceedings. He stated his objective is to recreate the pitch that performed well in the Shield for the upcoming Test in Adelaide.
“Any Shield game really is a lead-up to what we do with a Test match. They’re not trial games because they’re first-class important games to us, but it can help us understand what’s going on from year to year with a pitch. The drop-ins continue to mature and slightly change each year.
“So if we have our ideal pitch that we want to play, the characteristics, to get there we might have to change a small little thing here or there. It could be the height of cut, how do we get the moisture down deep into a drop-in pitch. For those sort of things, we do a lot of testing measuring and monitoring on. So from our side, they’re really, really important.
“We’ve literally a day-night Shield game a week and a half ago. So it went well, feedback was good and it gave us the confidence in regards to what we believe is the right preparation techniques for this pitch for the Test match, considering its importance. So again, it played well.
“It had pretty good bounce and pace for Adelaide and for our soil clay content. There were runs, and the batters were able to make runs, which was good. It had some bounce and spin, so it ticked off all the boxes we needed to. The referee spoke highly of it. The umpires were fine. Talking to the players that we did, it seemed to play quite well. Hopefully, it is the same with the Test match,” he said.