For Jake Pavlich, August 13 will be career highlight. As head of grounds and facilities at Northern Territory Cricket, he is overseeing producing Darwin's first Test pitch in 22 years for when Australia face Bangladesh.
Pavlich, who joined NT Cricket in 2024 having spent two decades in Adelaide at Sacred Heart College and Karen Rolton Oval, is aware of the significance. Sometimes players mask the pressure of big matches by terming them "just another game" but Pavlich knows this isn't an ordinary 22 yards.
"Since I started in 2024 we've been working on it to try and get it right," he told Cricinfo with a month to go before the Test. "[We] are very well aware that it's not just another match. I mean, there's a lot riding on it. There's a lot more scrutiny. So yeah, you sort of know the difference when you've got a big match compared to just a run of the field match."
International cricket returned to Darwin for the first in 17 years when South Africa visited for T20Is last year and Pavlich was pleased with the surface which saw Tim David flay 83 off 52 balls in the first game and Dewald Brevis hammer 125 of 56 deliveries in the second. But preparing wickets for white-ball cricket is more of known quantity.
The drop-in wicket for the Test was transported into the centre of Marrara Oval (TIO Stadium by its sponsor name) two weeks ago where watering, rolling and mowing is now taking place. Facilities and infrastructure is a little more limited than at Australia's major Test venues, including the nursery ground where the pitch is grown, but Pavlich is confident in how it will turn out.
He and his team have learnt from the drop-in pitch they produced for the first of the two four-day games of the Australia A-Sri Lanka A series last year. Sri Lanka A were bowled out for 272 in the first innings, with wickets shared between pace and spin, before the surface flattened. Australia A made 486 with five half-centuries, including one from Jake Weatherald who is set to play in the Test, before the visitors comfortably batted out the final day.
With both Australia and Bangladesh likely having a strong set of fast bowlers - including the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nahid Rana and Taskin Ahmed - there will be much interest in how the pitch plays. Pavlich hopes the Test surface retains its life for a little longer than the A game did.
"We had good reports early on in the A game, so we'll be trying for a little more movement later on [in the game]," he said. "I think that has a lot to do with the density of the grass, we were quite thin last year."
"Each year you learn a bit more," Pavlich added. "Think we've got it pretty well down pat and confident from what we produced last year. Up here in the NT we haven't had a heap of that [red-ball cricket] so every time we've had a chance, you put in the processes that we've learned along the way."
There are some challenges Pavlich has to deal with. He said that around this time of the year the temperature can drop a little - only a few degrees but "all of a sudden grass just stops growing." There can be heavy dew as well and moisture in the mornings, the latter which may interest the captain who wins the toss in the Test. Pavlich added that different pests and mites can also cause issues which can impact the density of the grass.
The Test pitch is formed of Legend Couch grass, but Pavlich explained that there can be "hybridising" which means different varieties become blended. "It's a bit tricky to manage," he said. "But the Test wicket is a very consistent [covering] so that's good."
Les Burdett, the legendary figure among Australian curators, visited Darwin recently in his role overseeing pitches for Cricket Australia but purely for support and guidance rather than any edicts of head office.
"We are left to our own device and there's trust there," Pavlich said. "Feel like we're building on that trust, and they can leave us be. But Les is a wealth of knowledge, obviously, so it's great having people up and it's always good just to have a different point of view and to challenge thinking."
Speaking last week, CA's head of scheduling Peter Roach said, "I'm really confident in Jake Pavlich who does a good job. [The pitch] is looking in good shape. We're really confident in the work that he did up there, and the preparation time that he's got."
Although for Pavlich the cricket season is flipped in comparison with much of the rest of Australia, he keeps in regular contact with other curators. "There's been really good relationships there between other curators," he said. "I think everyone knows everyone's in the same boat. Everyone's aware of the pressure that's on."
In a little under a month's time, come the opening day of the Test and shortly before the toss, Pavlich will hand over his pitch to the match officials. "I'll find some shade, it'll be pretty warm up here, and watch from the side," he said. "We'll lock in for hopefully a good Test."