MELBOURNE: Just as Australia captain Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first against India in the fourth Test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, thousands of fans are stilling lining up to enter the monumental stadium. The tickets are already sold out and Cricket Australia had even released an extra thousand seats to accommodate as many fans as they can for what is going to be an extremely hot day in Melbourne.
The weather prediction has been there for a while, especially for day one where the temperature is expected to close in on 40 degree Celsius. It is perhaps one of the reasons why India despite the grass cover on the MCG surface decided to go in with two spinners in Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja. That Shubman Gill was struggling for form perhaps made the decision all the more easier. Going by the team sheet, captain Rohit Sharma who pushed himself down the order in Adelaide is slotted at No 3 with Washington coming down the order.
Two days out from the Test, the Melbourne Cricket Club chief had asked fans to stay hydrated with the venue providing free water and sunscreen for those who are coming in. Just outside the venue, even as fans walk in from Jolimont junction, volunteers could be seen distributing free water bottles to assist the fans.
There is no exaggeration to what has been said about the weather. Through the course of the day the temperature is expected to go up to 39 degrees and it is not going to be easy out in the middle. The officials are going to be keeping track of the conditions using Wet Bulb Globe Temperature. It is an experimental forecast tool indicating expected heat stress on the human body when in direct sunlight.
According to the National Weather Service, the WBGT estimates the effect of temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation on humans using a combination of temperatures from three thermometers. And at any point through the day should the conditions be deemed extreme for play, the umpires are empowered to suspend play according to law 2.7.1. During the 2017-18 Ashes, such hot conditions led to England captain Joe Root getting hospitalised after getting to his half century at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Here at the MCG, as Jasprit Bumrah welcomed Sam Konstas — who became the youngest Test opener to play for Australia — to Test cricket with a sensational over where the youngster struggled to put bat on ball. While the weather seem pleasant at the moment, whether the play will go on uninterrupted or not will depend on the WBGT and how fast the conditions change in Melbourne through the course of the day.