What to expect from Perth pitch? Explained

The much-awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 is set to begin in two days. Before the beginning of the important Test series, everyone is looking at the pitch of the Perth Stadium, where the Test series opener will be played. 

Perth Stadium will host the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 opener, starting on November 22. The 27-year-old Isaac McDonald is in charge of preparing the pitch. McDonald is closely monitoring the pitch, which has a tradition of bringing challenges to both the batters and bowlers. 

It's definitely not traditional Perth Test prep

Due to rain for the last few days, McDonald can’t get the traditional preparation opportunity. However, they have adjusted their schedule and are comfortably working on it. 

McDonald said, "Yeah, it's definitely not traditional Perth Test prep. Yesterday we pretty much lost the whole day of prep with it being under cover. So we kind of saw the forecast early on and we started prep a little bit earlier than we normally would.

"So we're sitting quite comfortable still. It'd be nice if the sun would pop out and do its job but as of this morning we're in a good spot, we're really comfortable as a curating team." 

The Perth or Optus Stadium produces pace and bouncy pitches. McDonald believes that there will be variable bounces with time progress but unlikely to open the traditional WACA cracks. 

The curator said, "I don't think the weather is going to make this pitch fall apart. There'll be some deterioration, grass will stand up during the game and offer that variable bounce but in terms of big snake WACA cracks, unfortunately I don't think the weather is going to get us there,." 

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Fingers crossed the sun pops out

While the weather forecast is clear for all five days of the upcoming Test series openers, the temperature is unlikely to move hugely. McDonald is opting to produce the pitch naturally. 

McDonald added, "I mean everyone talks about the traditional baking of the top. We can kind of manufacture that with more rolling and less water on top if we have to. We're testing the wicket hour by hour so it's quite conditions based at the moment.

"So at the moment we're leaning towards rolling it a bit more on top to get that firmness and that happy medium between bat and ball. But yeah, fingers crossed the sun pops out." 

The grass on Perth pitch

During a recent Australia vs Pakistan ODI match, the curator left a 4mm grass cover on the pitch, where Australia were bundled out for only 140 runs in the series decider, and Pakistan chased down the target in 26.5 overs after losing three wickets.

McDonald is likely to leave 8 to 10 mm grass cover on the pitch before the toss of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 opener. 

McDonald said, "We've still got to try and get to a point where we think we're going to be fine by Friday. We're still in around the ballpark, 8 to 10 mm, was where we were last year as well.

"So we're sitting quite comfortable and having quite open conversations within the curating team of what we feel is appropriate and where to go from there. There's still be really good pace and bounce in the pitch.

"It'll just come in how well they look after the ball and how true the surface stays. We're meant to get to 30-32 degrees over the weekend so we'll see what the grass on top does there but in terms of coming off cracks I just don't think we're going to get there." 

Perth Stadium hosted its first Test during the Australia vs India Test match in December 2018. The venue has hosted four Tests where Australia won all four matches by the big margins. All those four Tests experienced unsuccessful chases in the fourth innings.