{"id":290371,"date":"2025-11-17T12:30:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/290371\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T12:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:30:16","slug":"australia-inspect-optus-stadium-pitch-ahead-of-perth-test-against-england-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/290371\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia inspect Optus Stadium pitch ahead of Perth Test against England"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019d love one,\u201d Webster said. \u201cSometimes a 40 or 60 is as good as 100 in some innings where it\u2019s a low-scoring affair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m expecting it to be fast and bouncy and offer a little bit for the seamers with the new ball. I\u2019m pretty confident our team can play in any conditions. We\u2019ve shown over the last 12 months that we can win from any conditions, in any country, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Beau<\/p>\n

Beau Webster with Pat Cummins at Optus Stadium on Monday.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Last summer in Perth, Australia bowled India out for 150 on day one but were left reeling at 7-67 by stumps. The average first-innings Test score at Optus Stadium is 395.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s batsmen have flourished on flatter decks in recent years, while Australia\u2019s bowlers have gently urged curators to keep some life in the pitches this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething in it for the quicks, something in it for the batters,\u201d curator Isaac McDonald told The West Australian in an interview last week. \u201cGood batters scored good runs and the quicks were in the game in the last few Tests here.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019re] aiming for that really good balance between bat and ball but the characteristics of pace and bounce have got to be there and we\u2019ll see what happens on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Test captain Greg Chappell wrote in his column<\/a> for this masthead last week Australia should prepare for a Perth surface that \u201cboasts a reputation built on sheer pace and bounce\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strip here is pure energy, where the ball flies with a velocity unmatched anywhere else,\u201d Chappell wrote.<\/p>\n

Australia trained for the first time on Monday afternoon after arriving on Sunday, while England\u2019s players were given the day off after completing their practice match last week.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Injured skipper Pat Cummins bowled in the Optus Stadium nets to Labuschagne ahead of the latter\u2019s expected return to No.3, while Australian quick Scott Boland said potential debutant Jake Weatherald would relish a good batting wicket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played against him for probably the best part of eight years and he\u2019s someone who\u2019s always been an opening batter who can take the game away from you in pretty quick time,\u201d Boland said. \u201cI know it\u2019ll be exciting if he plays on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019d love one,\u201d Webster said. \u201cSometimes a 40 or 60 is as good as 100 in some innings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-290371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}