‘This is Australia, this is Perth’ – Pitch curator Isaac McDonald promises intense pace as India enter BGT

Perth Stadium Pitch. ( Source – X)

India has been dominating the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as Australia last won the trophy in 2016-17. Since then, India have both editions of the series held in Australia and were equally impactful at home. As the impending edition of the BGT is scheduled to commence from November 22 with the first Test in Perth, Australia captain, Pat Cummins had pre-empted pitches aiding bowlers more than batters.

As the crucial series is less than 10 days away, Western Australia Cricket head curator Isaac McDonald has mentioned that Perth will be all about sheer pace and bounce. Isaac added that the core aim of producing a fiery pace-friendly pitch was to replicate the scenes from last year. It is worth noting that, the Perth pitch came under the scanner for a lifeless deck during the West Indies series and Isaac brought life into it against Australia’s fixture against Pakistan subsequently.

“This is Australia, this is Perth… I’m setting ourselves up for a really good pace, really good bounce, and really good carry. In a perfect world, I want to emulate last year,” Isaac McDonald told ESPNcricinfo.

Both bowling units were pretty rapid last year: McDonald

Speaking of the Test between Australia and Pakistan, even the Australian batters struggled to tackle the thrust towards them. The likes of Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, and Usman Khawaja failed to shield the rapid pace and took severe blows. Moreover, Pakistan was bowled out for just 89 in 30.2 overs in the second innings. The pitch made Labuschagne quip that it was the toughest pitches he had batted on.

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“Ten millimeters of grass was left on the pitch on that occasion. It’s [10 mm] a good starting point. Ten millimeters was pretty comfortable with the conditions that we had [last year] and that held the conditions together nicely for the first few days. Live grass on the pitch is speed. Both bowling units were pretty rapid last year and hoping for much the same this year. But, as we saw last year, good batters were able to take the game on and put away balls and score runs quickly,” McDonald added.

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