Boxing Day Test: Melbourne temperatures set to soar for sweltering opening day of Australia v India clash

Temperatures are set to soar to extreme levels in Melbourne as the simmering Border-Gavaskar Trophy series returns for the Boxing Day Test. Australia captain Pat Cummins said on Wednesday the heat would add “another layer” to his decision at the toss, with the mercury tipped to edge towards 40 C for the first day of play. It could also help bake a wicket that already looks set to be the best batting pitch of the series so far. Boxing Day forecasts for Melbourne had been at 40 degrees all week, but have now been revised down to 39. They are set to drop again for the rest of the match, with some rain even forecast on Saturday. It could put an extra strain on Australia’s fast-bowling group, who have swapped the injured Josh Hazlewood for track specialist Scott Boland. They have also had only sporadic support from all-rounder Mitch Marsh in the series. The two sides are fresh off a stop-start Test in Brisbane where rain interrupted every day, but bowlers still had to battle warm and humid conditions. “I think it’s another layer, so we will get out tomorrow and look at the pitch,” Cummins said of the conditions. “You get a bit of a sense of what the day is going to feel like and then you kind of make a decision from then. “I think it is a factor. Last week in Brisbane was hot, it was a bit of a tick, Starcy (Mitchell Starc) and I bowled a lot in the heat and Lyono (Nathan Lyon) and got through it fine. “I don’t think it scares us too much, but we will wait and see, 39 can get pretty hot.” Cummins said the pitch looks similar to ones presented for Tests in Melbourne across the past half-decade. There has not been a drawn Test at the MCG since the 2017 Ashes series. “Pitch looks really good, quite consistent to what it has here for the last few years I think, a bit of grass coverage, firm, so they have done a great job here the past five, six years with their pitches and we expect the same this year,” he said. “We will see how the heat changes it, I don’t know really. We will get to the ground tomorrow and kind of assess, but it looks like a good wicket.”