The head curator of the Adelaide Oval ground and his team is reportedly preparing the stadium's new playing surface and has announced that it will be ready for the Ashes Test opening day scheduled for December 5.
The renovated pitch and the turf will be tested for the first time from November 13-16, when SA hosts WA in a Sheffield Shield match.
Damian Hough described the Langhorne Creek grown turf as the 'Rolls Royce' of its class and said that it had been reinforced to ensure it quickly took to the reconstructed oval sub-surface.
The curator revealed that the turf is 50mm thick and is going to take seven or eight days to roll out, news.com.au reports.
He further said that the turf has got some mesh elements, which will help with divetting, and minimising the compaction and just speed up the ability to play on it straight away.
The curator assured that not even a sustained heat spell could affect the turf setting because a hi-tech irrigation system had already been laid underneath it.
Hough explained that the Oval sub-surface, which had been completely reconstructed over recent months, was world-class and it is a sand-based profile with a gravel element in it and designed to withstand a one-in-a-hundred year rainfall event.
