Sydney’s run with inclement weather during a Test looks set to continue, with rain predicted at stages of Australia’s clash with Pakistan, which begins on Wednesday.
Temperatures are expected to near 30 degrees on Wednesday with slight chances of rain, but Thursday is set to bring with it a 70 per cent chance of rain according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
It would mark the seventh Test of of the last eight at the SCG to be interrupted by rain.
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The number of washed out days in Australian Tests is dominated by the SCG, with 26 compared to the MCG’s nine and the Gabba’s eight.
A silver lining is rain is expected to be relatively light.
In 2016, only 11 overs were bowled across the middle three days of the New Year’s Test.
More inclement weather could renew calls for a different city to host the Test, or for the Test to be played earlier in the summer.
Late Australian cricket great Shane Warne in 2022 suggested the Test be moved to earlier in the series.
“It’s better weather then than it is in the first week of January,” Warne said at the time.
“It just seems to always rain in the Test match.
“It’s such a beautiful venue, such a beautiful city that imagine if the tourists, and any opposition team, came here to Sydney and had 10 days on the harbour and loosening up, getting ready and then play the first Test in Sydney rather than the fourth Test always in the New Year.
“Maybe it’s time for a change. Maybe Brisbane could be the New Year Test match and Sydney could be the first one.”
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