Spin could be key in unique start to Shield season

Confirmation the first phase of 2020-21's Marsh Sheffield Shield competition will be staged on auxiliary grounds in Adelaide has added further intrigue to an already uncharted summer schedule.

In seasons past, the big unknown for most Shield teams beginning their campaign was when – or if – they would venture to Queensland to face the Bulls' rampant pace-bowling attack on the traditional early-season Gabba greentop.

Now the six states must start preparing game plans and personnel preferences for venues such as Karen Rolton Oval (which has hosted a solitary Shield fixture), along with neighbouring Park 25 and Adelaide Oval No.2 that are untried as first-class cricket grounds.

Travis Head, South Australia's skipper who boasts significant experience on all those surfaces (including Glenelg Oval) through Premier Cricket engagements or training with the West End Redbacks, admits pitch conditions will be something of an unknown quantity so early in the season.

But he's forecast the influence of out-and-out fast bowlers might be blunted and spin could prove a factor, which might pique the interest of front-line tweakers such as New South Wales' Nathan Lyon, Victoria's Jon Holland, Queensland's Mitchell Swepson and SA's emerging leg-spinner Lloyd Pope.

"As far as the wickets go, I'm not sure what we'll get," Head told cricket.com.au.

"They are always good here in Adelaide so they'll be pretty fair as we've seen over the years, but they'll probably be a bit on the slow side at this time of the year.

"Personally, I hope we get wickets that deteriorate because I'd love to see spin come into the game and we've seen that in club cricket at Park 25 and Glenelg where they've spun on days three and four.

"But without those few months of heat to dry out the wickets and harden them that might not be the case, so only time will tell."

Glenelg Oval – which has hosted eight Shield fixtures in the past seven years including the 2015-16 final won by Victoria – has traditionally been employed in late summer when Adelaide Oval is unavailable due to AFL football commitments.

But it was used early (October) in 2013-14 when SA and Queensland played out a draw in which batters Tom Cooper and Peter Forrest scored patient centuries and spinners Cameron Boyce (eight wickets for the match) and Johan Botha (five) dominated with the ball.

The sole Shield game played at Karen Rolton Oval provides similarly slim comparisons, given it came late in 2018-19 with the Dukes ball, ensuring seamers Chris Tremain and James Pattinson (Victoria) along with SA pair Chadd Sayers and Nick Winter prevailed while no batter reached 100.

Tasmania and Western Australia should hold some insights into Rolton Oval's early-season character having played Marsh One-Day Cup matches there against SA last year, while that ground and Adelaide No.2 have also been regularly utilised for second XI fixtures in recent years.

Park 25 is mostly home to Premier Cricket but has hosted matches in the National Premier T20 Championships in the past two years and was the scene of the Australia Test team's emotional first training session held in the wake of Phillip Hughes's death in 2014.

If the nature of practice pitches prepared by SA Cricket Association Grounds Manager Trent Kelly at Rolton Oval during the off-season provide a guide, then spin could well be a decisive factor in the opening rounds of this season's Shield competition.

"The practice wickets at Karen Rolton are spinning a lot at the moment, but it's that slow turn because we haven't had the hot weather to bake them," Head said.

"I think we'll get pretty slow wickets throughout, and that might bring Popey (Lloyd Pope) into play.

"Off the back of footy season and with the weather, you won't be seeing those hard and fast pitches you come to expect after Christmas.

"So you can't blast teams out, it's going to be up to batters to stand up on those sorts of wickets, especially at Karen Rolton Oval from what we've seen in the past."

Glenelg and Rolton Ovals have hosted regular Australian rules football matches throughout winter and despite a burst of early spring warmth last week, Adelaide has returned to winter in recent days with around 20mm of rain falling so far this week and up to 20mm more forecast before October.

Regardless of the conditions that await the six teams next month, Head believes his squad can look forward to the season with confidence born from familiarity with the pitches and surrounds at all of the venues chosen to host the start of the men's season.

In addition to training on the pitches Kelly has prepared at Rolton Oval's practice nets, the Redbacks held their first two-day intra-squad trial game at Park 25 last week and undertook another match at Rolton Oval amid the rain of recent days.

Having finished bottom of the Shield ladder for the past three seasons, Head hopes the unprecedented home-ground advantage provided by COVID-19 travel restrictions might provide an early season boost for the Redbacks.

"We train a lot on the centre wicket at Adelaide No.2 and we're playing a round of practice games at Park 25 and at Karen Rolton over the coming weeks," he said.

"We'll see what those practice games produce, and hopefully see a blueprint on what the wickets will look like once the Shield matches start.

"So you'd like to think we have some ideas and plans around those venues that could be an advantage.

"We've played at Karen Rolton Oval a few times now and it's been a tougher wicket for bowlers, probably more batter-friendly and in the second XI games they play there's been some big, big scores.

"It all comes down to batting there, you've got to get the runs and put the pressure back on the opposition.

"But all teams have played a lot of cricket and they know conditions everywhere pretty well."

One certainty SA will take into the Shield campaign is that newly appointed coach Jason Gillespie won't be available to lead the team in person for their season-starting fixture against WA at Karen Rolton Oval from October 10.

Gillespie is currently coaching England county team Sussex in the final stages of the domestic T20 competition and is not scheduled to return to Australia until October 6, when he will undertake two weeks of strict hotel quarantine in Adelaide.

"I'd love to be there for the first game, however I know that the COVID19 protocols are in place for the safety and wellbeing of us all so I look forward to linking up with the squad as soon as the isolation period is completed," Gillespie said on Thursday.

Victoria also revealed on Thursday that an "extended squad of players" is currently serving pre-travel quarantine at their homes in Melbourne before arriving in Adelaide on October 5, at which point they will begin a further two weeks of isolation at the Adelaide Oval hotel.

They will undergo regular testing for COVID19 before leaving Victoria and after arrival in South Australia, and be permitted to train at Adelaide Oval's facilities under strict public health guidelines before their first scheduled match against NSW from October 22-25.