Ground staff place covers over the pitch as rain suspends play on day five of the third cricket test between India and Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane, Australia. (AP)If the first Ashes Test in Perth ended inside two days, a similar theme could recur in the second Test in Brisbane that starts on December 4, warns Shield players and former cricketers. The recent Shield Game at the venue, also held under lights, lasted just three days, with wickets falling in clumps being a repeated feature
Hosts Queensland won the game by seven wickets after bowling out Victoria for 143 in the second innings and chasing the target of 32 runs with seven wickets in hand. Xavier Bartlett, who took five wickets in that game, observed: “Just on twilight the pink ball talks a little bit more and the game goes through massive ebbs and flows.” “You see wickets falling in clumps. You’ve got to stay in it and make the most of that middle session. If the Test wicket is like the one we just played on it will be a really good cricket wicket. We got a result in three days but when you bat well you get rewarded and if you bowl well it’s the same,” he added.
The game saw quite a few collapses. In the first innings, Victoria crumbled from 158 for 2 to 237 for 7 in the first innings and from 114/3 to 143 all out in the second. Curator David Sundarski did not reveal the nature of the pitch he was preparing but said there would be ample moisture to keep the surface from premature cracking up. “All indications are that there is a bit of heat around. The wicket will dry out a lot quicker so you’ve got to make sure you keep enough moisture in it to last five days,” he said. “The aim is to provide a wicket where all players get a chance to perform their skills so hopefully all facets of the game come into the match,” he said.
Batsman Matt Renshaw too warned of the twilight phase. “While batting it feels like you can get a ball with your name on it at some point, but I think it will be a pretty similar wicket to what we have normally had at the Gabba,” he said. “We saw the pink-ball Test a few years ago when West Indies were touring and it swung around at times and was also nice for batting.”
Unlike Australia, who have played 14 Tests with the pink ball, winning 13, England have limited experience, having featured in only games in the last five years. The conditions are expected to so overly favour the seamers that ex-Australia cricketer Tom Moody has urged Australia to drop Nathan Lyon and pick an extra batsman. “A few hard decisions need to be made…and my personal view is I wouldn’t play Lyon. I never thought I’d see the day where you don’t play a specialist spinner in a Test match in Australia, but with day-night cricket, it’s hard to get the spinner into the contest,” Moody told Wide World of Sports.
“The second part to that is, the way England play, it’s very hard to get the spinner into the game…because they don’t tend to bat for long periods of time. I think Australia would be better having someone like (Beau) Webster taking Lyon’s spot and (as a result) lengthening the batting order,” the two-time ODI World Cup winner added.
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