The Melbourne Cricket Club curators are aiming to replicate the pitch that delivered last summer’s “epic” Boxing Day Test.
Australia defeated India late on day five at the MCG last year to go up 2-1 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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The pitch played host to an iconic finish but also an iconic start, as Sam Konstas reverse-ramped his way to a mesmerising debut.
MCC head curator Matt Page is navigating a different lead in compared with last year, with the warmer weather set to kick in later in the Test.
But he remains confident he and his team can mimic the foundation for the best Test match he has ever been involved in.
“Epic, yeah epic, it’s probably the best Test match I have been involved with,” he said.
“I think the contest throughout, the ebbs and flows, one team was up, then the next team was up, all three results were still possible on day five.
“It was a fantastic Test match, so if we can replicate this year that would be fantastic.
“Both teams are very competitive. You look at it, I mean who knows what’s going to happen Boxing Day. The game of cricket can throw up many different challenges.
“It would be great to replicate what we did last year, but I guess we’ll see how it all pans out in coming days.”
The MCG pitch has been rejuvenated from the bowling graveyard it was two Ashes series ago.
That 2017 pitch received a poor rating from the International Cricket Council after only 24 wickets fell over the course of five days.
Page believes they’ve since “found a recipe” that produces a contest between bat and ball and sees no reason to deviate from it.
“I think for us, I think the last couple of years has been what we wanted to produce,” he said.
“You go back to South Africa (in 2022), it was a really good contest, Pakistan, four-day Test, but really, really exciting (and) captivating.
“Then last year was captivating as well. For us, we’ve sort of found a recipe that works here and I think the last couple of years have been really good.
“We don’t see any reason why we would change that up.”
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