By: Drcricket7 Staff
The Indian team management could have avoided all talk of ‘rank turner’ for the 3rd Test match in Nagpur by not supporting it publicly. Ravi Shastri, the team director, took it up a few notches by describing how Nagpur track was absolutely not the problem.
But a day before the 4th Test at Feroz Shah Kotla, which is supposed to be a dead rubber, it’s emerging that the Nagpur pitch could have been watered less to produce a dust bowl. This is something, which the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) has completely stayed away from doing so.
Reason? There is already too much said and written about the previous Test match pitch and after so much of uncertainty surrounding the Kotla Test due the administrative shortcomings, experimenting with the pitch is the last thing that DDCA has in mind.
Team India isn’t worried if the Kotla track is a rank-turner or not as long as the ball is spinning. As if the hosts have changed their mood and discovered that the Indian pitches as it is assist the spinners and there is no need to prepare a rank turner like Nagpur. So in a way, the Kotla Test is the best opportunity for South Africa to salvage some pride.
There is absolutely no pressure of expectations on the visitors. They are already lost the series and trailing by a 2-0 margin. The only moral victory is that the International Cricket Council has declared the Nagpur pitch to be a poor one. It also proves to show that South Africa’s protest over the Nagpur pitch wasn’t unjustified.
So from here, a win at Kotla could end South Africa’s tour on a good note – the way it started with the T20 opener in Dharamshala. Who knows? If Hashim Amla and his men count out the Nagpur loss, the series could be imagined from the Proteas point of view as a drawn one.
Fortunately, India team has a strong line of defence both on the field and off it. With no video evidence to show that Nagpur pitch was unfit for Test cricket, Virat Kohli’s men want to come hard at their opposition and looking at a score line of 3-0.
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