The problem is defining any batting-friendly track as being 'flat' or a 'road' or anything else so simplistic.
Australian pitches are traditionally hard. The ball carries through at a good pace. If you bowl with a lot of pace, it gives the batsman a small window of time to pick and execute their shot. If they pull it off, there are runs galore. But it requires a batsman to pick their shot early and follow through with it. Good eye, good reflexes, get into the stroke quickly, play with confidence. That's what Australian batsmen do. And the Australian bowlers? They bowl with high pace, and they understand how to manipulate the lengths they bowl at to create that brief moment of doubt in the batsman's mind, to induce the false stroke and get the edge. Aussie spinners put a lot of overspin on the ball, to extract dip, drift and bounce. They use more flight to get the batsmen using their feet, rather than give them pace to work with. If there is absolutely no swing, seam or spin on offer, this tends to remain the defining characteristic of Aussie pitches.
Subcontinental pitches are slower. Softer. The ball dies a bit after it hits the dirt. As a bowler, bowling pace is futile. It just sits up nicely and lets the batsman hit it, because the lack of pace in the wicket mean a batsman can just wait and wait and wait and then hit the ball as soon is it's there to hit. Watch the ball, pick your shot at the last possible movement, generate power with bat speed and wrists.So, as a bowler, you're doing one of two things - either you're looking to trick a batsman into committing to a shot early - via changes in pace and flight - or you're looking to extract movement to beat the batsman - spin, seam, late swing. The idea seamer for Indian conditions knows hows to cut, swing and reverse swing the ball, and tends to sacrifice pace for the ability to bowl long, accurate spells. A spinner tends to bowl a lot of side spin, and a lot quicker through the air, trying to force a batsman to play them off the backfoot. A Subcontinental batsman is always looking to get on the front foot to score, to shift their weight forward to generate the power for their strokes. if there is nothing else on offer, this is the defining characteristic of Subcontinental wickets.
So now, what happens when a fast-trigger, hard-handed, flat footed Australian batsman faces Subcontinental bowlers on a Subcontinental pitch? What happens if he faces those same medium pacers and spinners on a hard Australian deck? What happens when the Subcontinental batsman takes his soft hands, fast feet and supple wrists against pure pace and loopy spin at home? What about when he faces those same bowler on a pitch with pace and carry? We've seen all this go down, we know what happens, we recognise and understand it.
And that's my point really. A 'flat pitch' is not the same in Australia as it is in the Subcontinent. There are still substantial differences between those surfaces. 'Home Track Bully' is a much better term for all that - don't need to complicate things by saying 'flat tracks in Australia are better for Australian bowlers and batsmen than they are for tourists". That's still true but sounds messy. Every play thrives at home in conditions they're familiar with. Conditions are different everywhere. Nothing wrong by suggesting a team's players -batsmen and bowlers- do better at home than touring players.
