Nathan Lyon's old boss has some good news for his former apprentice, tipping the SCG wicket for the Ashes Test to break up and offer spinners assistance.
There's an element of mystery about the pitch, given no first-class game has been played at the venue this season while the surface was redone.
It will also be the first Test wicket produced by Adam Lewis, just the ninth curator in the ground's history.
However, new grounds manager Justin Groves suggested there would be few surprises for the two teams in the match starting on Thursday.
"We've made a traditional SCG pitch. It wlll break up towards the end," Groves said.
The pitch, which still had a green tinge on Wednesday, got the seal of approval from local NSW offie Lyon, Australia's only frontline spinner.
"He walked out and said 'it looks good, I'm happy top bowl on it, so game on,'" Groves said.
Groves was Lyon's boss when he worked on the Adelaide Oval groundstaff before establishing himself as Australia's top spinner.
England captain Joe Root definitely expects the wicket to turn and will supplement out-of-form offie Moeen Ali with Test debutant and leggie Mason Crane, who played one match for NSW at the SCG last summer.
Groves said the fact the MCG drop-in pitch for the last Test had been rated poor by the ICC wouldn't put any more pressure on his groundstaff.
"We feel very compassionate for all our curators around Australia, so to see some comments like that for the MCG, it doesn't sit well with our team,' Groves said.
Asked if he'd offer Lyon a job on the SCG groundstaff once his playing days were over, Groves said: "Nathan is a very good guy, so if he wanted to come and work on the grounds team I'd have no problems with him whatsoever. It would be fantastic to have him."
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