Cricket Australia (CA) plans to instruct pitch curators to create conditions that favor batters in the upcoming Sheffield Shield. Peter Roach, CA’s operations and scheduling manager, will advocate for a shift in pitch preparation, moving away from bowler-friendly surfaces. This decision follows increasing scrutiny of recent Australian pitches, particularly after a two-day match in Mackay drew criticism for its quick conclusion. The aim is to better support the development of Test cricketers amid ongoing debates about pitch quality in domestic cricket.
“Our curators share that view that they want to see the same, and hopefully, I think our teams do as well. But over the last decade, that’s probably been a ‘when in doubt, lean towards the bowler’. “[Redressing the balance] is actually in all those little decisions, trying to create the perfect balance. And our curators speak openly about this. They have hundreds of decisions to make in their preparation, depending on weather in lead-in, other games and so forth. Our language is we still want the balance, but if in doubt, lean towards the batter. That’s in response to the way the game’s being played,” he added. The pitches in modern-day Test cricket are being prepared with results in mind, as this is the time of the World Test Championship. “But the ball’s definitely staying harder, so I think the last three years have probably been the hardest that I’ve experienced in my career batting-wise, in terms of the amount of movement that’s being generated. If you put a three in front of [the score] these days, you’re usually in a pretty strong position.”
Moreover, the new Kookaburra ball introduced in Australia in late 2019 has also made the ball behave differently. Australia icon batter Steve Smith had stated the same when he found batting hard during the Border-Gavaskar series in 2024-25. “If you look back five years ago, you’re seeing consistent 400-500s being scored in the first innings.
“Our previous language, probably for the best part of a decade, has been that we do want to see a balance between bat and ball,” Roach said, as quoted by Cricinfo. He added that it is crucial to “redress the balance” between the bat and the ball, which now seems to be tilting towards the bowlers in some Tests due to several factors. “Wickets have got greener, so it’s kind of like the perfect storm coming together,” he said.
