Fast and furious: the young gun in charge of Perth's famous pitch

In a profession that's predominantly populated by sun-beaten, soft-spoken men of a certain age, it makes sense the curator in charge of world cricket's equivalent of a sports car is himself more rock star than genteel gardener.

Isaac McDonald is overseeing preparation of his third Test strip for the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series match between Australia and India that gets underway at Perth Stadium on Friday.

But the 27-year-old's circuitous journey to the city that famously hosts the fastest and most furious turf pitches on the global circuit has seen him manicure neatly clipped surfaces in inner-suburban Sydney as well as tame fast-growing turf in the nation's Top End.

Growing up at Camden in Sydney's outer south-west, McDonald's only first-hand experience of cricket was a few games on synthetic pitches while at school.

But as a New South Welshman he knew of the state's proud cricket pedigree that provided a bulk of players for Australia's men's Test and one-day outfits in the early 2000s.

Unsure of a career direction when he left school at age 15, the first job he applied for was a successful bid to join the greenkeeping staff at Sydney University which required a daily train commute of just over an hour in each direction.

It was there, among the pristine playing fields of one of Australia's most prestigious learning institutions, that McDonald found his young life's purpose.

"At University of Sydney there was rugby, soccer, gridiron, cricket, lawn tennis – you name it, they play it there," McDonald told cricket.com.au during a break in his preparation of this week's Test pitch.

"So doing an apprenticeship there was so good because you got to work in every facet of the industry and cover all the sports.

"You did rye grass, big couch grass and we had five grade grounds for cricket when I first started, so in summer you were on a wicket and you got to have a crack at it.

"And that's when I found my true passion was cricket wickets."

Under the tutelage and support of more senior colleagues, McDonald was handed the keys for pitch preparation at the University's St Paul's Oval which hosted lower grades of Sydney's Premier Cricket competition.

Like record-breaking Test spinner Nathan Lyon who honed his curatorial craft at Park 25, one of Adelaide's out-grounds, McDonald took precious care of St Paul's which he now laughingly suggests was "the most manicured fifth-grade ground in Sydney".

Upon completing his apprenticeship and keen to learn as much about the pitch-making trade as possible, McDonald gained a job with the small greenkeeping staff at Northern Territory Cricket and moved to Darwin on the day he turned 21.

"I didn't know anyone up there, no friends or family but I quickly realised if I applied myself I could become good at this job, and understand that everything you do has an effect on the grass," he said.

"It's funny having conversations with other curators on how much of a challenge it is to talk about the reasons why they do things.

"Most people have an understanding of the basic process because it makes sense, but to have the ability to have a conversation about it is quite challenging.

"I found myself wanting to have those conversations and to make that quite normal, but sometimes you can get quite negative feedback from people, especially players.

"Then you understand 'maybe if I do this at a different time, or do this a different way it will probably have a different effect on the outcome'.

"So it's just through having conversations like that I found this is actually pretty good fun."

The challenge of preparing tracks amid the dry season extremes and red clay pitches of Darwin posed a vastly different challenge to what he became used to on campus in Sydney, but it did grant him experience working with the single drop-in used at Marrara Oval.

He was involved in the early development of T20 pitches for NT Cricket's ever-expanding Strike League competition during the southern winter and it was only homesickness after a couple of years up north that lured him back to Sydney.

Then, in early 2020, an opportunity emerged to join the WA Cricket Association ground staff ahead of that year's Women's T20 World Cup in Australia, and he made the even longer trek to the other side of the continent just before COVID-19 arrived.

Circumstances dictated he remained in WA once the World Cup concluded and within a couple of years he was appointed head curator to replace predecessor Brett Sipthorpe at the historic WACA Ground and the gleaming new Perth Stadium.

One of the key motivations in establishing the latter venue as Perth's home of Test cricket was replicating the surface that had made the WACA the formula one circuit of cricket pitches, with its steepling bounce and soaring carry.

The drop-in pitches at Perth Stadium use the same Harvey River black clay soil, sourced from the Rockingham region south of Perth, which has given the WACA Ground its distinctive character since it became a Test venue more than 50 years ago.

"The Perth clay content is quite similar to the Darwin clay, but obviously we get the hotter, drier temperatures here whereas in Darwin it still gets muggy," McDonald said.

"So there's a bit more of a cracking pattern in our clay, but the jump from Darwin clay to Perth clay is similar to what moving from a Sydney clay to a Darwin clay would be.

"Obviously the grass doesn’t grow as berserk here as it does in Darwin, so that's one difference but the formation and the basics are there, it's just little tweaks."

The only item seemingly more predictable than inevitable pre-Test questions about how much the next Perth Stadium strip will echo the WACA wickets of old is Perth's baking dry heat through the lead-up and duration of international matches.

But McDonald, whose carefully clipped blonde moustache and array of tattoos adds to an image of the enfant terrible of turf management, betrays a nervous smile when quizzed on the outlook for the upcoming NRMA Insurance Test.

A forecast of up to 10 millimetres of rain across the three days leading into the match has him worriedly calculating how much water he'll need to pump into the pitch to minimise cracking throughout the game, while ensuring it's not over-watered should more rain than anticipated arrive.

Before that weather event landed, the measurements he'd taken and the evidence gathered from the ODI between Australia and Pakistan earlier in the month suggested a pitch similar to that unfurled for last year's Test against Pakistan was highly likely.

"In terms of pace and bounce that (ODI pitch) was really good," McDonald said, even though that game lasted less than 60 of the scheduled 100 overs as Australia were rolled for 140.

"The Pakistan attack was quite skiddy, but when guys like (Australia's) Lance Morris and Spencer Johnson were really banging it into the wicket, not so much bowling short balls but hitting the surface a bit harder, that's when it was really coming through.

"So I knew the base moisture on that one-day wicket was quite similar to what I want to aim for this Test wicket, to really lock in that good moisture and give it nice express bounce.

"So far I've done a few tests on the (Test) wicket's moisture content readings, and we're about similar.

"So it's just whether or not the weather wants to play its part and I can hold it there or have to add a bit more moisture."

McDonald can't suppress a broad smile when asked how it feels to take charge of the fastest track in world cricket, in a city that's synonymous with epic battles between rampant quicks and the lightning reflexes of counter-punching batters.

But for all the gratitude he feels for being trusted with the exciting responsibility at such a comparatively young age, he admits to suffering acute anxiety on the opening morning of a Test when his 22 yards becomes the most scrutinised strip of turf in the country.

"The hour before the first ball, it's horrible," he said.

"You just want it to start, to make sure it's all good and the ball gets through to the 'keeper nicely and the batters are playing some strokes.

"Then I can relax and start to enjoy the spectacle of what the Test match actually is.

"I do get quite nervous, but I guess that means it matters because I care about the success of the game, and about the facility as a whole.

"So maybe if I didn't get nervous it might be a bad thing."

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed