Aussies try to up fear factor with talk of ‘quickest’ track

THIS is not the Adelaide you remember. The last time England were here, it was the first time a drop-in pitch was used at the famous old ground with the brand new grandstands.

The previous 11 Tests had generated 12 scores in excess of 500 in the driest state of the driest continent. Australia followed suit, tallying 570 before declaring, exhausting Alastair Cook’s tourists both physically and emotionally. Mitchell Johnson did the rest.

That was then. This weekend when the current Ashes resume, the pitch and weather will be far more in keeping with how England like it. And the ball will be pink. In two day-night Tests under these conditions at Adelaide, it has proven the great leveller for fast bowlers. Two years ago, it was over in three days with no side tallying more than 224. Last summer, Australia made 383, but only due to a classical Usman Khawaja innings, by far his best in Test cricket due to that elevated degree of difficulty.

With this in mind, a new line has emerged from Camp Australia since the Brisbane Test, that the Adelaide Oval is now proper rapid after dark. “Probably the fastest wicket around Australia at night,” according to coach Darren Lehmann. It was in keeping with Steve Smith’s take following the Gabba victory. “[Adelaide is] one of the quickest wickets at night.We saw how effective our bowlers could be when this wicket quickened up a little bit. That’s exciting.”

Sure enough, Smith was making the reference to bolster another point: that they are going to bounce England’s bowlers at every available opportunity. He isn’t so much telegraphing his plans as writing them in capitals and slipping them under Jimmy Anderson’s door. “I think we’ve made our intentions pretty clear with how we’re going to bowl to the tail,” Smith continued. “They can expect a bit more of a barrage.”

Speaking of chat, Peter Handscomb couldn’t be happier with how the Jonny Bairstow fishing expedition went. “That was pretty good,” he responded when asked to take a curtain call. “As far as sledging goes it was probably some of the smartest stuff we’ve ever come up with. Generally, the Aussie way is pretty brutal. If we can keep being smart with our sledges and it opens up a weakness we’ll be pretty happy with it.”

Anderson saw it slightly differently, that the Australians only sing when they’re winning. “They waited until they were ahead in the game to do it,” he said. “They were fairly quiet for the first few days when we were doing well. It was only on the fourth day when they became more vocal. Now they are one-nil up they are going to keep coming at us.”

This, of course, isn’t his first rodeo. “If anything it will galvanise us as a group,” the veteran added.

Back to the 22 yards that matter most, the other factor curator Damien Hough has to consider this time around is that heavy rain scheduled on the eve of the Test. In turn, he’s had to bring forward the preparation of the surface.

But he’s adamant that it will be business as usual when the lights go on, in line with the Sheffield Shield daynight game from October. Then, South Australia were skittled for 92 on the opening day and Mitchell Starc took eight wickets in the second.

The other man to impress in that fixture was hometown boy Chadd Sayers, named in Australia’s squad for his pink-ball prowess in domestic cricket with a view to potentially resting injuryprone Pat Cummins.

What Sayers lacks in pace he makes up for in classic swing – perfect for modern Adelaide – and in the aforementioned Shield game his six victims included Smith. But the probability of him getting his Baggy Green has diminished after Australia’s bowlers weren’t required on Brisbane’s fifth day.

Speaking of debuts, four years ago Adelaide was where Ben Stokes made his. This weekend he will instead be playing domestic cricket in New Zealand, so the allpervasive storyline across the ditch will continue to be just that. The kicker: on his day, there’s no better swing bowler on the planet, evidenced by his magic at Lord’s in September, or in Trent Bridge in 2015.

What could have been.