Australia is getting ready for the tough challenge, especially against R Ashwin and Axar Patel. Australia is determined to recover after losing three straight Test series to India. But with the WTC Finals approaching, Australia has prepared special scarified dusty pitches in Sydney because they are aware that the conditions there will be more difficult than ever. Before their departure on Tuesday, a few players are practising at Bon Andrews Oval in North Sydney.
“Kieran has done a fantastic job here with the groundstaff to produce exactly what we want. We feel as though out there the surfaces we got are very similar to what we’re going to confront in India. It is very difficult to replicate but we feel as though we’ve got close to that. So the ground staff have done a fantastic job,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald told ESPNCricinfo.
Although nothing is certain until each Test begins, one pitch on the Bon Andrews Oval, next to the main North Sydney Oval, was scarified and scuffed up, as well as having some significant cracks, to try and replicate what is anticipated to be on offer in India. SG balls were also used.
Australia is hoping that specially constructed domestic pitches will assist them in overcoming one of their greatest international challenges: winning a Test series in India, something they haven’t done since 2004.
The team has opted for a brief pre-series camp rather than a longer build-up in India, where there won’t be a warm-up game. Kieran Meurant, the curator of the North Sydney Oval, provided the kind of surface that head coach Andrew McDonald was hoping for during two days of intense training for those not competing in the BBL.
The practise wickets will be close enough to the test pitches to be useful, and Australia will arrive in Bengaluru next week. They will stay there for five days before travelling to Nagpur for the first Test on February 9.