Venue Analysis: How has Optus Stadium behaved in Tests?

The much anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 is set to begin on November 22 (Friday) with the Perth Stadium (also known as the Optus Stadium) hosting the first Test match of the five-match series. Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins are set to lead their respective sides, marking a first instance in Border-Gavaskar Trophy history of two fast bowlers leading teams in a Test match. 

There have been four Tests played so far at the venue with teams batting first winning the match 100% of the time. On all four instances, the team that batted first was the team that won the toss.

Australia have a 100% record at this venue in Tests as they have won all the four Tests at the venue. This venue made its international cricket debut in BGT 2018 where the Kangaroos convincingly beat the tourists by 146 runs. In the other three Tests, the Aussies won in dominating fashion against England in 2019, West Indies in 2022 and Pakistan in 2023.

At this venue, Australia have historically ruled the first day; they have batted first in all four Tests, never losing more than six wickets even once. 

As far as batting is concerned, openers and middle-order batters have made the best use of the conditions as they've averaged 35 and 41 respectively with openers posting ten 50+ scores. Among middle-order batters, there have been nine fifties and five centuries between #3 and #6. Marnus Labuschagne has smashed three of the five tons averaging 103.8 in eight innings at this venue. He is going to be huge for the Aussies come the first Test.

Evident from the table above, the first day of Tests at this venue has favored the batters. Thus, the bowling average and SR is on the higher end, at 65.00 an 126 respectively. But it gets cut down to almost half on Day 2. 

It's Day 3, however, where the major movement of matches have happened, with bowlers dominating proceedings at an average of 20 and SR of 47. Bowlers have continued to have the upper hand on the fourth day. Day five at the Optus Stadium, in general, has proven to be a mere formality with the major chunk of the wickets being tail enders. 

Historically, pacers have a good amount of bounce but not much help from the wicket on the first two days of Tests here. Spinners, meanwhile, have tended to have a big role with time. On the 'moving' third day, for instance, spinners have in fact averaged better than the quicks. But pacers have once again ruled the roost towards the end of the Test match with the assistance from the famous Perth cracks.

But here's the catch: even though spinners have influenced matches here at the Optus Stadium, the impact has largely come from the arm of one individual, Nathan Lyon. The off-spinner is in fact the highest wicket taker at this venue, having taken 27 wickets in eight innings at an average of 18.0. He was the difference maker the last time India played Australia at this venue in 2018, where he bowled two match winning spells of 5/67 and 3/39 where he sent dangermen Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant back to the pavilion.

Back to the point, here at the Optus Stadium, spinners not named Lyon have pretty much had no impact. Nine other spinners have combined to take just 10 wickets, averaging nearly 75.00.

Apart from Lyon's spin dominance, the pace attack of Australia have also been terrific with Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood all averaging 23 or under at the venue. Starc has the best record among the three: he's taken the same number of wickets at the Optus as Cummins and Hazlewood combined.

Optus Stadium summary

> A bat-first venue, historically. Australia have batted 4/4 times and won each and every time

> Batting is easier on the first two days, gets progressively difficult with time 

> Key to success is top-order batters batting big and batting long. Marnus Labuschagne has paved the way for three out of four wins here, averaging over 100

> Nathan Lyon is the only spinner that has found success at the venue. His record dwarfs the numbers of every other spinner; he is an x-factor here

> Every Australian seamer has an outstanding record at this venue

> Games have rarely gone to the fifth day

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