New Delhi: After going down 0-1 in the three-match Test series, India are desperate to level the series by winning the second Test scheduled at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. The match, which starts on Thursday, will reportedly see a bald and slow-turning pitch as it is already under making. According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, the pitch is predominantly packed with black soil, will be slower, flatter, and will showcase lower bounce characteristics than the first Test in Bengaluru.
Dented with a blow in the World Test Championship (WTC) points table after the Bengaluru Test loss, Rohit Sharma and co. are under pressure to script a turnaround and make it 2-1 in the three-match series to stay ahead in the race of the WTC final next June. India Notably registered their lowest Test score at home – 46 all out in the first innings. But the wider plan for the strips in Pune and Mumbai – where the last Test is scheduled (November 1) will be quite similar.
The idea is to plan India’s comeback in the game which can be helped by the pitch curators of the ground. Therefore the pitches will have more turns which will allow the Indian spinners to dominate. The report says that the one major difference between Oune and Mumbai will be the bounce due to a difference in the soil. The Pune ground will have black soil pitch while the Wankhede in Mumbai will have the red one.
It was meant to be similar conditions in Bengaluru but the overcast conditions in the city thronged with intermittent rains on the first two days, made the pitch at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium seamer-friendly. The Kiwi quicks used the conditions to their advantage once Rohit made the mistake of electing to bat first.
What could be the combination then?
Similar to the combination in Bengaluru, India will look to field at least three spinners, although the combination could be changed once it is known how much amount of spin can be extracted from the slow track. On Sunday, Washington Sundar was added to India’s squad as the 16th member despite already having an extra spinner in the form of Axar Patel. India played R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav in the first Test.
This will notably be only the third Test played at the Pune venue. The first Test was between India and Australia in the 2016-17 Border-Gavaskar Trophy which Australia won by 333 runs and the second Test at the venue was in 2019 when Virat Kohli hit a double hundred in an innings victory over South Africa.
The current pitch is expected to be devoid of grass and it is understood that seam movement will be minimal apart from the first hour after the toss but the dry surface will support reverse swing. Now that the pitch is slow and there’s no support for fast bowlers, the toss becomes crucial with teams likely desiring to bat first, not to forget the flat characteristics as well.
