And it's usually tough to say what's appropriate at Melbourne. As much as I think you're more likely to get early movement than a real turner, it's not so much that you need extra seamers; you just want two or three to bowl really well in the first session. Plus, it can still be helpful to have a bit of tidy spin on days 3 and 4. Even untidy spin can be supported by the wide boundaries.
You would generally argue it's a docile old pitch, but like the Millennium Falcon, it somehow has a few surprises in it. Against Pakistan last year for the Twenty20, it was a vicious pitch, if only for 39 overs. In past years, patchy grass has made it prodigiously uneven and sometimes, it appears to play differently from either end. Although you expect runs, you can sometimes sense a wicket. It's the sort of ground that, like its hero Warne, seems to be able to write its own scripts.
