The much-maligned Molyneux Park pitch will come under scrutiny from the players, umpires and, of course, Otago and New Zealand cricket officials.
The venue has been tentatively booked to host a one-day and twenty/20 fixture this summer, but those matches will be held elsewhere if the ground does not come up to scratch.
Molyneux Park lost the right to host elite cricket following unsatisfactory pitch reports at the end of the 2008-09 season.
But Otago Cricket Association chief executive Ross Dykes is hopeful new groundsman Wayne Walker has brought the pitch up to standard.
"It is early on in the season and they've still been getting frosts up there until recently," Dykes said.
"So it hasn't been easy for Wayne, but Ian McKendry [New Zealand Cricket turf manager] was there last Thursday and thought the progress Wayne had made was excellent.
He thought the grass was in good condition and the soil profile looked OK, and [he] was very confident it would turn out to be a good enough pitch."
Dykes said New Zealand Cricket would consider pitch reports from the two captains and the umpires at the end of the trial matches and make a prompt decision on the venue's suitability to return to the domestic schedule.
The ground is crucial to Otago Cricket's plans this summer.
With Dunedin's University Oval out of commission for most of the summer while work to expand the ground is carried out, Molyneux Park is required to take up some of the slack and relieve the burden on the region's other venues, in Invercargill, Queenstown and Oamaru.
The next few days were also important from the players' point of view, Otago coach Mike Hesson said.
"There are a number spots up for grabs and a lot of competition for places," he said.
"We've probably got nine or 10 batsmen going for five or six spots and they are all in good form. And it is going to be pretty hard to fit seven or eight good seamers into one side."
At the conclusion of the trial, the Otago selectors will name a squad of 17 or 18 to travel to Lincoln to play Canterbury in two two-day warm-up matches next week.
Otago seamer Anthony Bullick has a groin strain and is unavailable for the trial games, and batsman Michael Bracewell has exams and will also miss the trials.
