IND vs AUS: What the Melbourne pitch is expected to be like for Boxing Day Test

India and Australia will face off in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) which starts from Thursday (26 December). The Boxing Day Test is the fourth Test of the five-match series and both teams have everything to play for with the series level at 1-1.

India, under Jasprit Bumrah’s captaincy, won the first Test in Perth by 295 runs. Rohit Sharma skipped the series opener in Perth due to the birth of his child and Bumrah led the visitors in Rohit’s absence. Rohit returned to Australia ahead of the second Test in Adelaide, but has endured a poor run of form ever since, with scores of 3, 6 and 10 in three innings.

Virat Kohli, too, has not had a fruitful run since his unbeaten century in the second innings of the first Test. The former India skipper has registered scores of 5, 7, 11 and 3 since then. It will be paramount that both Rohit and Kohli rediscover their form with the bat.

This will be India’s first Test in the post Ravichandran Ashwin era . The Tamil Nadu cricketer announced his retirement from international cricket following the drawn third Test in Brisbane, finishing As India’s second highest wicket-taker in Tests with 537 scalps. India have called up uncapped all-rounder Tanush Kotian to the squad for the fourth and fifth Tests.

Like Ashwin, Kotian bowls off-spin and bats right-handed. The Mumbai cricketer has so far scored 1525 runs and taken 101 wickets in First-Class cricket.

Australia, too, have made changes to their playing XI by bringing in uncapped Sam Konstas in place of Nathan McSweeney. Scott Boland also returns, replacing the injured Josh Hazlewood. What will the pitch be like in Melbourne?

IND vs AUS, Melbourne pitch report

Matt Page, the MCG curator, suggested that the MCG pitch could be a pace-friendly one and added that there won’t be any turn on offer for the spinners. “Spinners? Oh, it doesn’t really break up and spin here,” he told reporters in Melbourne. “If you look at our long-format games over the last four or five years, they’ve been more seam-friendly than spin-friendly. So I don’t see that changing here,” Matt added.

Matt also stated that by leaving out 6mm of grass ahead of the Test, the pitch would assist pacers bowling with the new ball. “Seven years ago, we were quite flat. We want to create exciting contests and exciting Test matches, so we leave more grass-that brings the bowlers into the equation,” Page said. “But it’s still good for batting once the new ball goes off. We keep 6mm grass and monitor that as we go,” he said.

A Sheffield Shield game between Victoria and Queensland that took place at the MCG recently witnessed a low-scoring affair. Neither team managed to surpass 250 and Victoria were set a target of 273. However, Victoria were all out for 249 in the chase.

“There won’t probably be as much seam as in the Shield games. In Shield games, bowlers get a bit more out of it. The preparation is similar, but we tend to pull back slightly because the quality of players goes up,” said Matt. “We make sure it seams around the whole day with the new ball,” he added.

Teams batting first have won 10 out of the 24 matches that have been played in Melbourne since 2000. Teams who have bowled first, on the other hand, have won 12 games in this period.