For the second year in a row, curator Tom Parker finds himself looking overhead almost as much as underfoot ahead of the SCG Test.
Rain is predicted on all five days of the dead rubber between Australia and Pakistan, which starts on Tuesday in Sydney.
Wet weather ruined the corresponding fixture last year, with no play possible on days three and four of the drawn Test between Australia and the West Indies.
Showers are again forecast but they aren’t expected to be nearly as severe or persistent.
“In my time here, just on 20 years, I’ve never seen a Test match like that here,” Parker said on Monday.
“We don’t want to go through that again. We want to see some enjoyable cricket over the next five days.
“You’re going to see pretty much a traditional SCG pitch.
“The SCG always traditionally spins. That’s been the nature of the beast here for many years.”
Parker spoke with captain Steve Smith and coach Darren Lehmann on Monday morning, with this week’s forecast dominating discussion.
“They were very happy with the condition of the pitch and what they were seeing,” he said, admitting cloud cover might impact how much the pitch broke up.
“They were more concerned about the weather conditions over the next five days.”
Parker added he was under no pressure to produce a spin-friendly strip ahead of Australia’s four-Test tour of India.
“I give Cricket Australia full credit; they’ve never come down and told me how to prepare the pitch,” he said.
“There’s been no correspondence regarding this match at all.
“All of our games this season … we’ve seen a fair bit of turn.
“There’s a lot of grass on this pitch but … they (spinners) seem to like the thicker grass – it makes the ball grip and turn a bit more.”
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I can't see them losing much time to rain. The forecast is on of those ones where you'll have a few passing showers here or there. It's a bit funny, last week the test was in Melbourne where they lost great chunks of the test to large amounts of rain, and meanwhile in Sydney there was barely a drop of rain as the temp rarely dropped below 35 degrees. Come to the week the test is to be played I'm sure the players will be happier with the mid-20's temps forecast, even if it means a few passing showers.