India vs Australia, 2nd Test: All you need to know about Perth's drop-in pitch

India and Australia will play their second Test match of a four-match series at the brand new in Perth's Optus Stadium, which has a drop-in pitch.

Perth Stadium, which has a sitting capacity of 60,000, has succeeded the WACA as the city's premier venue for internationals.

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A drop-in pitch is a pitch that is prepared away from the ground or venue in which it is used, and "dropped" into place for a match to take place.

This allows multi-purpose venues to host other sports and events with more versatility than a dedicated cricket ground would allow.

Pitch's curator Brett Sipthorpe is trying to produce the 'bounciest' pitch he can and that could very well work in India's favour.

Weighing around 30 tons, the depth of a drop-in pitch is 20-cm. It is maintained and prepared in a steel frame.

Not everyone is a drop-in fan. Purists warn such pitches -- which some grounds now favour so they can host multiple sports -- remove the characteristics of different fields that made matches more unpredictable, and therefore exciting.

"With the drop-in pitch, there's more of the sameness about things from city to city, and place to place," Australian cricket historian Bernard Whimpress told AFP.

"Which makes me sort of think, why don't they just forget about the drop-in pitch and put in artificial turf or something."