Shield season-opener ideal Ashes preview

If England's batters want to see what potential perils await them in the historic day-night Ashes Test later this year, they need only tune into the live stream of New South Wales' match against South Australia starting at the Adelaide Oval tomorrow.

Australia's Test skipper Steve Smith claimed today that – according to the venue's head curator Damian Hugh - the pitch to be used for the upcoming JLT Sheffield Shield will be "somewhat similar to what it's going to be like in the Test match".

Which will be the first in more than 140 years of Ashes competition to be sanctioned using a pink ball, with the final session of each day to be completed under floodlights.

The extra few millimetres of grass that Hough has kept on his pitch for the previous two day-night Tests, largely to provide an additional 'cushion' for the pink ball which degrades more readily than the traditional red version, has proved a boon for seam bowlers.

Of the 69 wickets to have fallen in those Tests (that pitted Australia against New Zealand and South Africa) at an average of just 230 runs per team innings, more than three-quarters (53) have been claimed by seam bowlers on what was once regarded as a highway to hell for quicks.

And while Australia Test spearhead Josh Hazlewood is being rested from the four-day fixture starting tomorrow, his likely Test teammates Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins are expected to share the new ball for the Blues in a revealing preview of the second Ashes Test that begins on December 2.

“It will be exciting," Smith said today after NSW's final training session prior to their season-opening Shield match against the Redbacks.

"Patty (Cummins) hasn’t been here before for a long-form game, and I don’t think he’s played a pink ball game either so he’s excited to get out there.

“He’s seen a few of the (day-night) games played and the ball’s done a little bit (and) Starcy's been swinging the ball so that's a big plus.

"Hopefully they can have a big impact in this game, and the summer as well."

Cummins might be unfamiliar with the prevailing conditions and the behavioural characteristics of the pink ball, but Starc has dominated in the new format even if he was an outspoken critic of the day-night concept when it was first mooted.

In his first outing with the newly developed pink ball in a Shield fixture against South Australia in Adelaide two years ago, he tore through the Redbacks top-order on the first evening to leave the hosts in tatters at 3-3.

The left-armer finished that innings with 5-28 before claiming a further 3-62 in the second innings, and in his two Tests under lights at the ground he boasts nine wickets at 20.22 as well as a stress fracture in his right foot in 2015 that relegated him to six months on the sidelines.

Tomorrow's match marks his return to first-class cricket after a recurrence of that injury cut short his Test campaign in India last March, and will give Smith an early indicator of how his strike weapon is shaping up ahead of the five-match Ashes series.

But NSW's strong batting line-up - led by Smith, his Australia vice-captain David Warner and Test-capped pair Nic Maddinson and Moises Henriques – is also expected to be challenged by an SA seam attack that has become the most potent in the domestic competition over recent seasons.

Three of the top four Shield wicket-takers over the past two years are SA quicks (Chadd Sayers, Joe Mennie and Dan Worrall) while the fourth seamer in the Redbacks squad (Kane Richardson) also features in the top-20 under that criterion.

Given their familiarity with the now seamer-friendly Adelaide Oval conditions and their capacity to combine movement in the air and off the pitch with nagging accuracy, Smith believes they will provide "perfect" preparation for his and Warner's coming battle against England's pace attack.

Which will be led by veteran pair James Anderson and Stuart Broad who can be expected to thrive under lights on an Adelaide track that should prove far more akin to an English surface than anything they have previously encountered in Australia.

"This wicket provides something for everyone," Smith said today.

"The groundsman out here (Hough) does a terrific job, I think he's probably the best around the country at the moment.

"There's a little bit in it for the quicks, if you get yourself in and are disciplined you can score runs and it spins, so it's a beautiful cricket wicket.

"It's good preparation, and a good opportunity for some guys to put their name up there.

"For me, it's about spending some time in the middle and scoring some runs as well.

"I didn't feel as good as I could have over in India (during the recent ODI tour) and Bangladesh (in the Test series that preceded it), and it's a big summer with the Ashes so I'd like to be spending some time in the middle myself."

South Australia: Travis Head (c), Jake Weatherald, John Dalton, Callum Ferguson, Tom Cooper, Jake Lehmann, Alex Carey, Joe Mennie, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Daniel Worrall (possible 12th man).

New South Wales: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Nic Maddinson, Kurtis Patterson, Moises Henriques, Daniel Hughes, Peter Nevill, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Trent Copeland,

Sean Abbott (possible 12th man)

2017-18 International Fixtures:

Magellan Ashes Series

First Test Gabba, November 23-27. Buy tickets

Second Test Adelaide Oval, December 2-6 (Day-Night). Buy tickets

Third Test WACA Ground, December 14-18. Buy tickets

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Buy tickets

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Buy tickets

Gillette ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14. Buy tickets

Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Buy tickets

Third ODI SCG, January 21. Buy tickets

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Buy tickets

Fifth ODI Perth TBC, January 28. Join the ACF

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Buy tickets

Gillette T20 INTL Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Buy tickets

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Buy tickets

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Buy tickets

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 13

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21