New CEO won't rule out four-day Tests

Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts is open to the idea of trialling four-day Tests, saying it's a change worth exploring.

Last December, South Africa thrashed Zimbabwe inside two days in the inaugural four-day Test.

England will play Ireland in a four-day Test in July next year in a bid to further experiment with the Test format.

Australia have no immediate plans to follow suit with a four-day Test but are open to the idea of trialling it.

"There's a bit to be said for it," Roberts told SEN.

"It's certainly something we need to be open minded to down the track.

"The average duration of a Test match is a shade over four days.

"We know there's been timeless Tests over the years, we know there were even three-day Tests. So Test cricket hasn't been five days in duration forever.

"And I think the concepts of four days going forward is something we need to be open to, without jumping to conclusions."

Australia play Afghanistan in November 2020. Given that match falls outside of the Test Championship, Roberts said a fixture like that could be used as a trial for four-day Test cricket.

Meanwhile, Roberts is adamant his administration will never encourage curators to doctor pitches to suit the Australian Test team.

Australia often confront seemingly doctored pitches when they play overseas, especially in the subcontinent.

Perth Stadium curator Brett Sipthorpe raised some eyebrows when he seemed to suggest that Cricket Australia had requested him to prepare a frighteningly fast and bouncy wicket for the second Test against India.

But Roberts denied CA or any of its staff had given any mandates.

"Certainly not," Roberts said.

"There were photos in local media of Justin (Langer) checking out the wicket with the curator the other day.

"But you don't prepare a Test match wicket over the course of three or four days, it's done over months. The nature of the deck couldn't be influenced over the last few days.

"There's no instruction to say it should play this way or that way. It's essentially a good contest between bat and ball that's consistent with the characteristics of each venue. That's as far as it goes.

"The right thing for cricket doesn't necessarily mean we're producing conditions that mean our teams are a walk-up start to beat our visiting opposition."

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: First Test, Adelaide Oval, India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Second Test, Perth Stadium

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar