The question on everyone's mind is: Will the Kotla help the hosts complete a 4-0 brownwash?
BCCI's ground and pitches committee chairman Daljit Singh inspected the pitch along with Kotla curator Venkat Sundaram on Tuesday evening and looked satisfied.
So how will the pitch behave? There was no official word from the curators but the groundsmen are confident that the pitch will be result-oriented and the Delhi & District Cricket Association backed this claim by saying the pitch was perfect during the third ODI match between India and Pakistan in January.
That match belonged to the bowlers but it was an ODI played in freezing conditions. The conditions are completely different now and Delhi is getting hotter by day.
Kotla, on Tuesday, wore a bald look which should make the batsmen happy. However, DDCA sources said that this wicket has typical Kotla characteristics - it will be slightly slow and may keep low and will surely take turn as the match progresses.
With intense heat during the day, cracks may open up sooner than expected. Keeping that in mind, the groundsmen have been instructed to keep watering the pitch to keep it in good condition. "It should not look underprepared," said an official.
The Kotla wicket ran into controversy in 2010 when the venue was banned by ICC for a year after an India-Sri Lanka ODI was abandoned due to "unplayable conditions".
The curators and the DDCA have worked hard to ensure that the pitch does not play truant during the Test match.
0 comments:
Post a Comment