Motera pitch has not witnessed good starts for India in the last two Tests. Will the Kiwis benefit just like South Africa and Sri Lanka? Over to the batting stars
Motera pitch has not witnessed good starts for India in the last two Tests. Will the Kiwis benefit just like South Africa and Sri Lanka? Over to the batting stars
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| Sachin Tendulkar is clean bowled by Sri Lanka's Chanaka Welegedara on Day One of the first Test between India and Sri Lanka at Motera, near Ahmedabad on November 16, 2009. PIC/AFP |
The last two Tests at the Sardar Patel Stadium here have witnessed dramatic first days, with South African Dale Steyn spitting fire to bowl India out for 76 in 2008, and Sri Lankan Chanaka Welegedara reducing India to 32 for four last December. On both occasions, the pitch flattened into a batting beauty during the course of the Test, a trend that will continue in today's first Test between India and New Zealand, curator and former Test player Dhiraj Parsana has assured.
The curator didn't want to be reminded about the pitch he prepared last year ufffd a Test that saw 1,598 runs at the loss of 21 wickets. He reiterated that the pitch prepared is a sporting one. "Expect some action in the first session. The first day will definitely belong to seamers and spinners will get into action earlier than expected.
The pitch will last for five days. There will be consistency in bounce for both seamers and spinners ufffd everyone will be happy," a confident Parsana told MiD DAY. The former player didn't get too much praise for the pitch he prepared in the 2008 Test which South Africa ended up winning by an innings and 90 runs and against Sri Lanka, India was saved by Rahul Dravid whom skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined as the second centurion of the innings in a drawn game.u00a0
Come to think of it, the Motera wicket has invariably come in for criticism. Flashback: Motera made its debut as a Test centre in the third Test of the 1983-84 series against the West Indies who won the Test thanks their famed pace battery.u00a0 Gary Kirsten, the India coach will remember how poor the wicket was in 1996 when Sachin Tendulkar's Indians clashed with Hansie Cronje's Proteas. Journalists covering today's Test remember Cronje's press conference after that defeat.
A media man was stopped in his tracks by the South African captain just when he uttered, "skipper, you said the pitch was bad." Cronje interrupted the question to roar, "I didn't say the pitch was bad. I said it's the worst I've played on." The room was in splits, but some journos were not as amused when they discovered the curator had fled away when they tried to get in touch with him for a response to Cronje's view.
Regardless of the result, a dramatic first day should be a certainty to bank upon. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni assured that there were no issues - and that every player is 100 per cent fit. VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and Ishant Sharma have all undergone intense rehabilitation processes in the last three weeks since the completion of the Bangalore Test.
Tough luck
When asked how difficult it would be to drop Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay - the two players who helped India win the series against Australia, Dhoni said: "Both are fantastic young players, but the ones who are replacing them - Gambhir and Laxman - are seasoned campaigners.u00a0 Both Pujara and Vijay got an opportunity to play at the international level - that is good exposure for them.
