With Boxing Day at Melbourne last week being the third shortest in Australia in terms of ball bowled, the talk this week has been on the pitch at Sydney Cricket Ground, venue of the final Ashes Test against England. With Australia yet to name its final XI and naming spinner Todd Murphy in the squad of 15, Australian stand-in captain Steve Smith has shared that all options including an all pace-attack similar to Melbourne Test is in the table and Australia could play a spinner or no spinner with the possibility of a couple of all-rounders.
“I haven’t had a chance to look at the wicket this morning, so all options are on the table currently. (The pitch) obviously hasn’t had a great deal of sunlight, so need to check it out and see what it looks like. It still looked pretty green yesterday. Could play a couple of all-rounders, could play a spinner, could play no spinner. We’ll figure it out once we see the surface and see which way we want to go about it. No-one’s locked in yet. There’s 13 or 14 guys on the table.” Smith told reporters ahead of Sunday’s final Test at Sydney.
Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon in action. (FILE PHOTO: AP)
20 wickets had fallen on the first day of the Melbourne Test and 16 wickets fell on the second day before England won the Test by four wickets. ICC match referee Jeff Crowe had rated the Melbourne pitch as ‘unsatisfactory’ and the ground had been given one demerit point. The pitch at Sydney Cricket Ground was seen having a tinge of grass the whole of this week. On Friday, SCG chief curator Adam Lewis had insisted that the green pitch should not be a cause of concern for Cricket Australia. “You want to see a green tinge three days out. If you’re not seeing any live grass three days out, then that’s when [it’s a worry] … I’m really comfortable with where we’re sitting. We had a little bit of sun this morning. They’re saying a bit more sun tomorrow. That will take the greenness out of the pitch. We’re really happy with the pitches at the moment. We’re looking good.” Lewis told reporters on Friday.
While Australia lost the Boxing Test by four wickets, the team saw its pacers dismantling England batting in the first innings. While all-rounder Cameron Green has played in all the four Tests in the Ashes, the all-rounder only averages 18.66 in batting with only one score in excess of 40 apart from taking three wickets in the series so far. Smith spoke about how the team sees Green as a quality player and how the all-rounder has made some good starts but failed to capitalise on it “He’s got himself in on a few occasions and probably not gone on with it. That’s probably the disappointing part about it. Starting your innings is actually your hardest thing. He’s doing that pretty well and then just finding a way to get out. That happens with everyone, I’ve been through the same thing on numerous occasions too. What we know with Cam is he’s a quality player. Not too long ago he contributed some really valuable runs in the series in the West Indies on some tricky surfaces. I think he was our leading run scorer there batting at three. He’s batted in different spots, which also can’t be easy when you’re trying to sort of nail down one role. Green hasn’t got the runs he’s wanted so far, but I think he’s actually looked quite good at times too. We know he’s a bright player. Every time he goes back to shield cricket, he smashes it. Regardless of what happens right now, we think he’s got a really bright future.” said Smith.
