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It looks like Australia has found a new stronghold.
Once upon a time, Australia’s gladiators would welcome visiting teams into the
Gabba, also known as the Gabbatoir, like lambs to the slaughter.
On a fast-paced, lively pitch under a scorching heat,
they would demoralise their opponents in the first five days of a tour and send
them on their way across the nation for two or four more losses.
However, after India destroyed the stronghold in the
fourth Test in the 2020–21 series, the Gabba has just once hosted the first
Test of an Australian season.
With its bright light, steep bounce, and equally harsh
sun, Optus Stadium in Perth is quickly becoming Australia’s favourite home
ground. After the team crushed Pakistan in four days, bowling them out for 89
in the fourth innings to secure a 360-run victory that left the visitors
wondering how in the world they could win down under.
With India approaching next summer, it has sparked
debate inside the Australian camp as to whether Perth should be the starting
point for any significant home series. While being tactful, Captain Pat Cummins
disclosed that several people in his locker room thought the visiting team’s
first port should be at Perth Stadium.
Australia has a good record at the new site in Perth.
Four Test matches, four wins; 146 runs was the narrowest margin of victory. It
is an improvement over the former WACA pitch, which had a fiery reputation but
had aged well, as seen by Australia’s four victories there this century,
including one by India.
Every game at the new stadium has followed the same
plan. If they put it in the proper places, bat first and register an
above-average score on a surface that has provided the quicks with plenty of
pace and bounce. Then, on a track they love to bowl on, Australia’s attack gets
to work taking 20 wickets against opponents who are unable to cope with the
surface’s high bounce and pace as it continues to get more unpredictable as the
game wears on.
Just like Australia’s batters and bowlers are
challenged when they head to the subcontinent, they have no qualms about
inflicting the same pain on opponents on pitches like the one in Perth.
“We know from travelling overseas, you go to
foreign conditions and if you’re a batter and you don’t score runs, you start
questioning things,” Cummins said. “As a bowler, if you haven’t had a
huge impact you start looking at your own game perhaps a bit more than you do
at home. So we love those conditions. We know those conditions really well. I
think that’s what makes playing and winning away from home so difficult.”