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Ashes 2021-22: Time to turn back the clock and liven up SCG pitch

With three subcontinental Test tours looming, what better time than now for Sydney to go back to the future so Australia can unleash not just Nathan Lyon but also Mitchell Swepson.

Nathan Lyon hasn’t had much joy in Tests at the SCG. Picture: David Gray/AFP
Nathan Lyon hasn’t had much joy in Tests at the SCG. Picture: David Gray/AFP

The Sydney Cricket Ground wicket is a bit like that saucepan containing an ultra-mild curry that is just asking for someone to sneak past and let fly with a tube of chili paste.

A spoonful of fire and brimstone is just what Sydney needs. And if the ground staff ever went too far and put too much chili in the mix, don’t fret.

We will forgive you. The greater crime is to do nothing.

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MCG curator Matt Page has given his Sydney counterparts a timely example of how it is possible to turn a tabby cat into a tiger.

He also showed us that if you are going to change the fabric of a wicket and you have to err then err on the side of overcorrection.

The SCG pitch produced a draw between Australia and India in January. Picture: David Gray/AFP
The SCG pitch produced a draw between Australia and India in January. Picture: David Gray/AFP

Test cricket is enhanced, not diminished, by spicy decks as proved by the last genuinely lively SCG deck, against England eight years ago.

Maybe the MCG wicket was a tad too tricky for batsmen but what a fabulous Test it was. Two days of carnage trumps five days of tedium every time.

We feel some sympathy for Sydney ground staff because a determined list of curators have found the SCG deck a challengingly strip of real estate to manage but this Test against England is the chance to change things.

The MCG blueprint for change is worth noting.

A few years ago the MCG was warned by the game’s governing body that it was in danger of losing its Test status if it kept producing wickets as flat as the Hume Highway.

The MCG pitch provided plenty of excitement. Picture: Michael Klein
The MCG pitch provided plenty of excitement. Picture: Michael Klein

Page responded this year by leaving 11mm of grass on the wicket, which meant that fast bowlers became kings.

But Sydney does not have to go in this direction.

It is supposed to be a spinner’s deck, so there is no crime at all – particularly with three subcontinental Test tours looming — in having a dry, cracked surface.

In fact, it would be a joy to hear Fox Cricket’s pre-day pitch inspection revealing mild panic over widening cracks, which can add so much theatre to the contest.

Draws are not common in Test cricket these days yet Sydney has had four in its past seven Tests. That’s too many, even if several were weather-related.

As much as we luxuriate in Sydney’s potential as a slow bowling haven, its lack of bounce has driven off-spinner Nathan Lyon to abject frustration on many occasions.

Nathan Lyon hasn’t had much joy bowling at the SCG in Test matches. Picture: David Gray/AFP
Nathan Lyon hasn’t had much joy bowling at the SCG in Test matches. Picture: David Gray/AFP

He averages just under 42 runs per wicket there in a decade of hard toil.

But that is almost twice as good as India’s tireless champion Ravi Ashwin, who averages more than 80 per wicket there after three Tests, and finds it one of his most challenging grounds in the world.

It’s time to change the narrative.

Shave the grass. Put away the hose. Watch the dusty footmarks widen. Bring the men around the bat. Take Sydney back to its spin bowling roots.

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Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/cricket/ashes-202122-time-to-turn-back-the-clock-and-liven-up-scg-pitch/news-story/be86f36844890b6066304b70ef469527