Good bowlers are excited to come to MCG, says curator

The weather in Melbourne has already dropped from a high of 37°C a day after the team landed here to a max of 18°C on Monday.

- Ashish Magotra

You never quite know what you'll get in a city that's famous for having three seasons in a day. Usually, you find a way to deal with it and move on but the curator of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Matt Page, can't do that.

It rained on Sunday evening and Monday was cool which meant there was more moisture around than usual, and that in turn meant that the preparation of the pitch would need to be carefully monitored. Overall, though, the pitch is on the track that Page wanted.

"We have been happy with what we have served up in the last couple of years and we don't see any reason to change that. Seven years ago, the pitch was quite flat. We sat down as an organisation and said we want to create more exciting Tests, so we leave more grass on now.

"And that brings the bowlers into it a bit more, but the surface is still good for batting once the new ball goes off. We have been running at six millimetres of grass and we will monitor that," he said on Monday.