An SCG pitch not used since Shane Warne’s closing Test 15 years in the past might spin like a “traditional” Sydney pitch, shifting a saggy inexperienced return for Ashton Agar up the checklist of chances for the third and closing conflict with South Africa.
Australian captain Pat Cummins mentioned he was “set” on the ultimate crew, however wouldn’t verify it on Tuesday morning, with Agar probably coming into the aspect forward of Lance Morris on a deck not used because the farewell Test for Warne and fellow greats Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer in 2006/07.
Australia’s closing crew will not be recognized till the toss on Wednesday, with loads of intrigue as to who will accomplice Cummins and Nathan Lyon within the bowling assault.
With Mitch Starc out injured, Morris has been touted as a possible debutant, given his uncooked velocity, though Cummins indicated the West Australian speedster might miss out.
“We’ll see; I don’t think it’s the WACA-type pace-bowling friendly wicket out there,” he mentioned.
While nothing is about in stone, it does appear like Agar will play his first Test since 2017 instead of the injured Cam Green, with wicketkeeper Alex Carey set to maneuver up a spot after his breakthrough century in Melbourne.
“We’re set on our 11, we’re just going to wait for the toss,” Cummins mentioned.
“I think it’s a bit different to most Aussie wickets, especially with a couple of injuries. With Green in particular, we have to dice it up a bit differently. But we’re pretty confident in our 11.
“Yesterday we had a pretty good look at the wicket. We just wanted to have another look today 24 hours on. It hasn’t really changed; they have taken a bit more grass off it. It looks a bit more like an SCG wicket of 15-20 years ago.”
Those feedback had been echoed by SCG curator Adam Lewis, who mentioned the floor would go well with the spinners, though he stopped in need of telling selectors they need to go along with two tweakers.
“We’re hoping for a traditional SCG pitch,” Lewis mentioned.
“It’s not quite what we’ve seen in the past few years. A few of the players have told me it looks like a wicket from about 10 years ago, which gave me a bit of confidence.
“It’s thin on grass, a bit patchy and probably not the best-looking pitch that we’ve seen, but we’re looking forward to it and we’ve done the best we can. Hopefully it’s going to be a really good Test.
“The good thing is that I can go grass, but I’m not a selector.”
There might be a romantic really feel to the SCG deck, with Lewis and his crew choosing pitch three, which hasn’t been used for a Test match since three Australian greats all retired collectively throughout the 2006/07 Ashes.
Warne took simply two wickets in that Test, a win over England, with the quick bowlers doing the harm.
“When we were doing our investigation, we worked out that Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer had their final Test on pitch three, so in our planning we had that in the back of our mind,” Lewis mentioned.
“We tried bringing grass in on pitch five as best we could, but with the amount of play we’ve had through the whole season, it just couldn’t get there in time.
“Knowing that Shane Warne and the guys played their last Test on three, it just felt right, so we put our energy into three.”
The choices in Sydney may have one eye on subsequent month’s blockbuster tour of India, which could possibly be a preview of the World Test Championship later within the yr.
“It’s a huge connection to India,” Cummins mentioned.
“Fast bowling and reverse swing is going to come into it, which we can expect in India.
“We will probably get more spin overs here; our batters are probably going to face more spin here as well. So it’s a really good connection. Even captaining here might be a little different to the last few Test matches, so it’s a really good prep.”
