Published: Feb 22, 2017, 02:23 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 28, 2017, 10:48 AM (IST)
Pune is all set to celebrate its first ever Test but the parties in questions — India and Australia are not on the same ground when it comes to the pitch. Pandurang Salgaoncar, once a fast bowler of the country, is the curator of the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium where the first Test will be held this week and he cannot be more delighted in presenting the pitch for the same. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs Australia, 1st Test at Pune
Talking to a dozen reporters on the match that starts tomorrow, Salgaoncar praised the pitch. “The ball will fly. There will be very good bounce. Seam movement won’t be much, but the ball will go fast,” Salgaoncar said. The ground sits along the Pune-Mumbai highway road. Salgaoncar goes on to add that the ground will not break up and it will stay compact before adding with a broad grin that “If I would have been playing on a pitch like this, the game would be definitely finished in four days.”
However his calculation of the pitch is largely contradictory to what the Australians seem to have assessed of it, upon their arrival for their first training session yesterday. Captain Steven Smith, coach Darren Lehmann and interim selection chair Trevor Hohns studied the surface together before the session, unable to decide what to conclude of the spotty patterned surface. Smith, then, took his batting stance to test. India vs Australia, 1st Test, preview: Can Steven Smith and co. rise above Virat Kohli’s No. 1 team?
Loose sections, covered with blotchy cracks and softness around the patch of bowler’s feet landing by all means, makes it a spinners’ pitch. At least that’s what Australian front-line spin bowler Steve O’ Keefe thinks. “It looks like it’s going to spin,” O’Keefe said. “Potentially from day one – it’s dry, it’s got its cracks, it’s what we’d expect. It’s what we’ve been talking about and I think it’ll deliver on what it is – I think it’ll play completely different to the warm-up match in Mumbai (the well-grassed strip at Brabourne Stadium last week). O’ Keefe added they were prepared for the situation and therefore practiced in Dubai under similar conditions. “It’s going to spin and stay pretty low and be pretty slow,” he predicted.
Seam bowler, Josh Hazlewood, on the other hand, said he prefers never studying the pitch before the match. But believes in the combined inspection of his own team rather than the report by Salgaoncar. “It could break up pretty quickly, spin can come into it pretty early on – day one and day two. You might see a few through the top but it’s hard to tell sometimes with these wickets,” Hazlewood said.
Salgaoncar was not of the same opinion as he stood strong by saying that he prepares the best pitches for cricket and none that are issued to him, fall out of line. He believes that the pitch will provide plenty of opportunities for the batsmen on first two days, but will be equally fruitful for the quicks and spinners, while adding that it “depends on the class of the bowlers also.”
Politics played a part in ensuring Salgoancar never played international cricket. He has fantastic First-Class numbers though, having claimed 214 wickets at 26.70 from 63 matches.
