India head coach Anil Kumble admits New Zealand also have quality spinners, so there is no point in talking about whether pitches will be rank turners
Anil Kumble
Kanpur: India's head coach Anil Kumble was well aware that he would be bombarded with questions by the media on the nature of the pitch at Green Park for tomorrow's first Test match against New Zealand.
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Kumble handled the tricky questions with aplomb, satisfying the questioners and in the process, giving nothing away.
Expected question
"I knew the first question will be on the pitch and the last one too. Well, it is a typical Green Park wicket and I expect it to behave like I have seen it for 28 years that I have been coming here. I know there will be a lot of talk on the pitch, but we as a team do not talk on the pitch, but on cricket," said Kumble.
"Our focus is on the game and how we have to prepare for it; it has never been on what type of pitch we will get to play on."
Virat Kohli has his eye on the ball in the Sydney Test during India's tour of Australia in 2015. Pic/Getty Images
Whenever a side, especially from outside the sub-continent, comes visiting for a Test series, the focus of the media is heavily on what type of pitches India would provide — will it be a rank turner, where the ball starts playing tricks from Day One.
Kumble in the past has been beneficiary of such home pitches where matches have ended inside three days in India's favour. That has brought upon the wrath of both the media and ICC, for providing "sub-standard wickets".
Therefore, even the Indian cricket board is aware of the perils of providing a pitch where the match ends inside three days. Obviously, it does not want to have further issues with the world body on "sub-standard pitches," when it already has its hands full with other issues.
Also Read: We have not demanded turners, says coach Anil Kumble
Sporting pitch
Green Park's curator Shiv Kumar thus has had to perform a delicate balance, where the pitch should not be an "akhada", but then, it should also help the Indian spinners.
"The pitch is a sporting one. The first two days will be ideal for batting, and then gradually there will be wear and tear. It will start turning," is what the curator said.
"Pitches in India will turn. That is a given. Quality spin bowlers are India's advantage, and obviously they know how to exploit the conditions. However, we ourselves have to be prepared to face quality spin, which this New Zealand team possesses.
"They have all three variety of spinners (off-spin, leg-spin and left-arm spin), which we do not see often in a foreign team. So we have to equally be prepared to face the spin Test ourselves," Kumble said of the expected battle between the Indian batsmen and New Zealand spinners.
Witty Henson
New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson was quite witty when he asked if he expected the pitch to turn. His one-liner was "not if a lot of grass grows on it the next two days."
Whatever the condition of the pitch, one thing is for sure is, spinners will play a crucial role. On the Indian side, it will be R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra who would torment the Kiwi batsmen, while leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, off-spinner Mark Craig and left-arm spinner Mike Santner will strive to give it back to the Indians.
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