The first Test will begin on November 22 at the Perth Stadium.
The five-Test series between Australia and India will mark the first time the two teams have played a Test series longer than three or four games since 1991–1992.
The Indian team has landed in Australia and will be training at the WACA stadium in Perth, which is close to Optus Stadium, the site of the opening Test. India has put their practice match on hold and chosen to use center wickets in match simulations.
The Optus Stadium pitch for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been prepared to deliver "good bounce and pace," in keeping with the history of the fiery tracks in Perth as per the pitch curator, and India will be given a hard welcome to Australia.
After being carefully planned since September, the drop-in pitch for the series-opener Test, which begins on November 22, was relocated to the playing field at Optus Stadium last month. Similar to the surfaces at the WACA, where pitches have been very spicy to begin the Sheffield Shield season, it has the same native clay and grass species.
"This is Australia, this is Perth... I'm setting ourselves up for a really good pace, really good bounce, and really good carry. In a perfect world, I want to emulate last year," WA Cricket head curator Isaac McDonald told ESPNcricinfo.
This Test will only be the fifth match to be played at the 60,000-capacity Optus Stadium and McDonald stated that he is trying to prepare a pitch that has similar traits to the one that he readied for the first Test against Pakistan in December last year.
After being slammed for preparing a placid wicket for the Australia v West Indies Test, that the Windies managed to take into the fifth day, McDonald prepared a fiery surface for the Pakistan Test in December 2023.
The Australians celebrated their huge 360-run victory after Pakistan was bowled out for 89 in the second innings. In all, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc, three Australian pacers, claimed 12 of the 20 wickets taken by Pakistan.
As the game progressed and batters like Marnus Labuschagne took hits to their hands, the pitch also began to break.
And recently, the Pakistan pace quartet bundled Australia out for 140 in the third ODI here.
"Every wicket you make is conditions-based. You've got to back yourself with the conditions and make educated guesses around your moisture content and how much rolling to do. It's a juggling act but hopefully, the match gets into day five or the last session of day four like last year. If we can get some nice cracks forming later in the game...the game takes care of itself,” the curator added.
McDonald said he is looking to leave some grass on the pitch to make it a bit spicier. The surface will be different from the one on which Pakistan defeated Australia in the third ODI.
"It's (10 mm) a good starting point. Ten millimeters was pretty comfortable with the conditions that we had (last year) and that held the conditions together nicely for the first few days. Live grass on the pitch is speed. Both bowling units (Australia and Pakistan) were pretty rapid last year and hoping for much the same this year (for the India match),” he added.
India played the very first Test on this venue in 2018-19 and lost the Test by 140 runs.
(PTI inputs)