Adelaide Oval and the serial killers

PL argues that Adelaide is the best Test on the circuit and explores the serial killing/killer ways of Starc and former left-arm destroyer Mitch Johnson

Five sleeps to Adelaide. The light on Australian cricket’s hill, although not hosting under lights for the first time since 2022. The third Ashes Test is a chance for cricket to catch its breath and right itself after six disconcerting days of play; a chance for England to lift a groggy head from the canvas and fight back, a chance for Australia to administer the last rites to Baz and his Ballers.

The Ashes clattered onto the Perth stage like the saucepan man falling from the limb of a faraway tree, attempted to right itself under lights in Brisbane, but can now find its feet on a pitch that offers hope for all the games’ craftsmen to display their wares.

Nathan Lyon, so understandably aggrieved to have been cut from two of the past three Tests, will return to the fold on a square where Mitch Swepson recently claimed a 10-wicket haul. Lyon is back because, well, proper cricket is back. Proper cricket with a red ball on a wicket that, traditionally and more recently, takes spin. The natural order of things will be further encouraged by the return of Pat Cummins to the captain’s suite and the bowling lineup.

Should Usman Khawaja also force his way back into the XI, there's going to be a genuine old-timey feel to the Australian outfit. One more time with feeling.

The top orders of both sides should be somewhat relieved to know that the ball will be red and the wicket one where sides are posting scores above 300 more often than not in this year’s Sheffield Shield. In the most recent clash between Tasmania and South Australia, the home side posted 426 in the second innings.

Adelaide is, for mine, the best Test host in Australia, if not the world. Adelaide people are cricket people. Few other cities embrace the game like the free settlers; few enjoy the natural advantage of a cricket ground so close to town, or a town so convivial when it comes to the post-match debrief. The SCG is a great venue, but in a city that size, the excitement around the event is diffused and the broader experience diluted. Boxing day at the MCG is monolithic, but Adelaide Oval and Adelaide have Goldilocksed the scale and setting.