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Road to India in Australia 2024-25

Starfighter

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
honestbharani said:
He means it will depend on the weather as much as other stuff. But they will give us bouncy hard wickets for the most part. They r not great against the moving ball either.
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It's been a while since traditional hard bouncy pitches prevailed. Not even sure our groundsmen remember how to create them.
 
the big bambino

the big bambino

Cricketer Of The Year
honestbharani said:
He means it will depend on the weather as much as other stuff. But they will give us bouncy hard wickets for the most part. They r not great against the moving ball either.
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I really hope we do but our test pitches over the past few years have been alien to me. I believe curators have left generous covers of grass and they have seamed and not behaved in the way of a traditional Aussie pitches. There is talk that Adelaide in particular, is hard to balance and the groundsman favour leaving too much grass otherwise they'll produce a road. Then a favourable pitch for seamers can be further enhanced by night time conditions.

I'm not sure why we've produced these pitches and its a shame if we serve them up in the next two summers featuring marquee series. They certainly don't give us an advantage and detracts from tradition of the pitches Australia is generally known for producing.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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centurymaker said:
hose apparently traditional pitches were a sham, producing 500 v 400 contests.
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That was the case for a few seasons in the early-mid 2010s, but those pitches weren't really "traditional" decks in the sense they lost a fair bit of bounce and carry and were just complete and utter roads. It's good the new Perth venue has some carry and pace and the MCG is a bit better than it was a few years ago, but there's still a fair few problems with pitch prep in Aus in general tbh. I was a th eSCG last summer and there were balls being taken at ankle height on the first morning. Melbourne is better than a few years ago, but still pretty boring and flat (as is the pitch there).
 
the big bambino

the big bambino

Cricketer Of The Year
centurymaker said:
Those apparently traditional pitches were a sham, producing 500 v 400 contests. These current pitches are so much better, producing a more even & absorbing contest between bat and ball.

No team vying for a place in WTC final can afford home pitches that can potentially lead to a drawn match every now and then.
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True, bouncy pitches pitches hasn't stopped Australia dominating at home; ever. And if you consider batting as a lucky dip an even and absorbing contest then you're welcome to it. Personally I'm not a fan of pitches that can turn bad bowling into effective bowling as worthy of merit.
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
honestbharani said:
He means it will depend on the weather as much as other stuff. But they will give us bouncy hard wickets for the most part. They r not great against the moving ball either.
Click to expand...
Bouncy hard pitches is probably the thing that's singularly most dependent on weather. We had a historic, 1-in-100 year drought through most of the 2010s (which probably means we'll be getting one of those twice a decade now but I digress) when the pitches were near uniformly roads. Then that drought broke in mid-2020 and it's been unusually wet and rainy ever since and suddenly pitches are slower, inconsistent and have more seam movement. The pattern is pretty obvious.
 
Daemon

Daemon

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I don’t understand this drought stuff. Why not just water the pitch to compensate? Does it just just dry out quicker because of the low humidity?
 
the big bambino

the big bambino

Cricketer Of The Year
Daemon said:
I don’t understand this drought stuff. Why not just water the pitch to compensate? Does it just just dry out quicker because of the low humidity?
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We've had el nino and la nina events before. Our problem is the curators can't cut a decent pitch anymore.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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Daemon said:
I don’t understand this drought stuff. Why not just water the pitch to compensate? Does it just just dry out quicker because of the low humidity?
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Yeah I think that's kind of part of it but not entirely sure.

The drought in the 2000s was the longest and hottest since the 1890s. Basically little to no gorund water and a lot of cities went on odds and evens for watering gardens (much like the English do with weeks for showering in even the most verdant times, but I digress). Basically it just bakes everything into submission. I can't give you a scientific reason why that is because I CBF looking it up, but it's no coincidence there were a stack of flat pitches in the 2000s at the same time as most of the southern hemisphere was in a massive drought.

In unscientific terms, it's almost like the soil has to listen to HB for an extended period, understandably just gets ****ing exhausted and loses the will to live.

Awesome beach weather though.

Edit: also what Bambino said - our curators are ****ing junk here rn.
 
social

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I own a share in a nursery and therefore have world leading expertise :laugh:

One of the horticulturalists told me that rain contains far more nutrients than tap water and is infinitely better for root growth

It’s the roots that bind the soil together and helps make the pitch hard

I assume that pitches were softer during the drought because root growth wasn’t as pronounced
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
Daemon said:
I don’t understand this drought stuff. Why not just water the pitch to compensate? Does it just just dry out quicker because of the low humidity?
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You can certainly water the pitch but that will probably only moisten the very topsoil, which will promote short-term grass growth, while it's rock hard underneath. So when it dries out, not only is it still bone dry below, it's now a block of concrete because that dead grass is holding it together.
 
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