With an eye on the challenging tour of South Africa early next year, India is reportedly set to play the remaining two Tests of the ongoing series against Sri Lanka at home on pitches which will provide ample assistance to fast-bowlers.
ESPNcricinfo has reported that during the Australia ODI series in September, the Indian team management had told the authorities to prepare such kind of pitches for the Sri Lanka Tests which would help Virat Kohli & Co. to prepare for the South Africa tour.
The report further claimed head coach Ravi Shastri had mentioned that the pitches ought to be “lively green tops”, which are “hard and bouncy”.
The Nagpur pitch will also be a pacer-friendly wicket, as the news outlet reported the track is covered evenly with grass and is expected to retain grass when the teams lock horns for the second Test from Friday (November 24). Meanwhile, the spinners are set to experience tough times in the upcoming Test too, as the officials have insisted the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja can make an impact only in the latter parts of the game.
India, meanwhile, would be looking to put up a good performance with the bat after the failure on a lively Eden Gardens track in the first innings. With conditions firmly in the bowler’s favour, Suranga Lakmal ran riot with the ball, as India’s formidable batting line-up fell like a pack of cards and the hosts were bundled out for a paltry 172.
But unlike the batsmen, the Indian bowlers made merry on the pitch with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami leading the charge by taking four wickets each.
Indian batsmen made amends in the second innings by scoring 352 before the pacers once again impressed and nearly won the game for the hosts by reducing the visitors to 75 for seven before bad light ended the game.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli & Co. have already started their preparation for the challenging next 18 months where they are scheduled to tour South Africa, England and Australia. Currently the world number one Test side, India has already proved its mettle at home, and the team will be desperate to improve the poor overseas track-record in recent times.
After the game, opening batsman KL Rahul had admitted the team is preparing for the following two years.
“It’s very clear that we’re preparing for the next two years that we’re going to travel abroad and play a lot of cricket overseas, and we are going to find wickets like this, and it is going to be challenging for all of us, so we wanted to prepare in that way,” Rahul had told journalists.
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