Rain in Perth has hampered pitch preparations for the first Test between Australia and India

The wicket for the first Test in Perth could still be hard and bouncy but will be missing something pitches in the west normally produce.

Wet weather in Perth could prevent “big snake “ cracks in the pitch for the first Test between Australia and India in Perth but the wicket should still be “rock hard” when the first ball is bowled at Optus Stadium.

Curator Isaac McDonald conceded a full day of having the wicket under covers on Tuesday limited the sunlight needed to “bake” the surface to get it to the traditional fast and bouncy levels of the past.

With wet weather expected during the match, McDonald said there was little liklihood the pitch would “fall apart” over the course of the match, but would provide suffiecent difficulties for the batters, both Australian and Indian, who both boast star-stidded pace attacks.

“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,” McDonald said on Wednesday.

“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

Andrew McDonald and Daniel Vettori inspect the pitch (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

“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.”

McDonald hoped to get the wicket to the same level which helped Australia’s ODI attack roll Pakistant for 140 recently.

“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 (grass), was where we were last year as well,” he said.

“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 pitch set to be hard as a cat’s head pic.twitter.com/SmJ7zOgawY

— Adam Collins (@collinsadam) November 20, 2024

Despite being comfortable with where the condition of the pitch would get by Friday, McDonald was loathe to suggest what the captain who wins the toss should do.

“It’s way above my pay grade mate,” he said.

“I think we’re setting ourselves up really nicely for it. All things are leading to getting that pitch rock hard come Friday morning and as I said people above my pay grade will get to choose and see what they do.”

Originally published as Rain in Perth has hampered pitch preparations for the first Test between Australia and India