A picturesque view of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Credit: X/@MCG
Melbourne: The Melbourne Cricket Ground has been a happy hunting ground for India the last two series, having won here on both occasions.
Indian pacers, especially Jasprit Bumrah, as well as spinners have tasted some success on this surface.
The pitch for the upcoming Boxing Day Test promises to play out in a similar manner, according to curator Matt Page.
"It's (temperature) been factored in now," Page said. "We'll just monitor as we know with Melbourne that the weather can change quite quickly. Is it a concern that it's going to be 40 degrees on Boxing Day? No, it just probably means it might quicken up a bit quicker than what it would if it was 20 degrees. So, whether we leave a bit more moisture in it, I can't say yes or no at this stage. We'll keep monitoring the weather as we lead in and we'll adjust our preparation accordingly."
While Page said that they have been leaving a bit more grass on the pitch in the last six-seven years, he also acknowledged that it would never be as quick as Perth or Brisbane.
"... But over the last few years we've managed to get some pace in it, which has created that excitement. And we're trying to do the same, so there's a bit of grass on it. If you're a fast bowler and you look at it, you probably do get excited.
"It seams around the whole game with the new ball. So it gives those fast bowlers a chance."
Page also clarified the procedure for the MCG ground staff to prepare pitches for practice while explaining why the Indians got pitches that didn't suit Test preparation.
"For us, three days out, we prepare pitches for practice here," he said when pointed out Akash Deep's statement on Monday that practice pitch seemed more of a white-ball pitch. "If teams come and train before that, they get what pitches we've had. So today we're on fresh pitches.
"If they needed to train this morning, they would have been on those fresh pitches. So it's a standard procedure for us, three days out we do our pitches that we're going to have for our Test match."