Spinning track to test teams

By Paritosh Pramanik

NAGPUR, Feb 7

AUSTRALIA vice-captain Steve Smith and opener David Warner kneeled down and had a close look at the centre pitch. Slowly, other Australians surrounded the 22-yard strip and got glued to it for a few minutes. The strip looked bald, without a tinge of grass and with loose cracks on it. Though there was a bit of watering on it in the afternoon, it hardly mattered.

Later in the evening, when India’s nets session was about to conclude, groundsmen were seen sweeping the wicket with huge brushes. It is believed that the brooming is being done to break the knots of grass on the pitch, if any. The pitch was then rolled lightly.

All the talk about Indian pitches for this series has surrounded around rank turners being laid down for Australia who have not won a series here since 2004.

With the World Test Championship final slot at stake, there is no hiding the fact that Jamtha will also offer a spinning track. It always has. Vidarbha’s stunning win over Gujarat last month is the testimony to this. Chasing 74 for a win, Gujarat were bundled out for only 54 runs with spinners accounting for all second innings wickets. Vidarbha’s premier left-arm orthodox Aditya Sarvate took 11 wickets in the match while rookie Harsh Dubey five.

The first Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy is set to have a similar surface. Whether it aids spinners from Day One is the question that is haunting the Aussies most. First-hand experience of the surface can be had from the spin-twins of Vidarbha who were the architects of the last Ranji win here against Gujarat. “The Jamtha pitch was never seamer friendly. It has always been on the slower side. Three spinners would be ideal for India,” felt Vidarbha’s experienced spinners Akshay Wakhare and Aditya Sarvate who share 542 First-Class wickets between them. A look at the pitch and the preparations that went on at the fag end of Tuesday to keep good length spots dry on both ends would tempt India to play three spinners. But it should not backfire as Australia have come well-prepared and are aware of things to come.

India vice-captain KL Rahul was not keen on revealing the team combination. “Yes, we did see it (the pitch), but it is still too early to really know what the it is going to do. We can only look at it and assume it’s going to play a certain way, but you never know with pitches. Yes, there is the temptation to play three spinners because we’re playing in India. We’ll take that call on the day of the game or the day before the game,” Rahul said.

Australian vice-captain Steve Smith was clear on his reading of the track.

“Pretty dry, particularly one end that I think will take a bit of spin, particularly to left-arm spinners spinning it back to our left-handers, there’s a 

section that’s dry,” Smith told the media.

India must also be aware of the South Africa Test at the venue in 2015-16 when the match finished inside three days with the hosts winning it by 124 runs. During that Test 33 wickets fell to spinners from both sides and ICC had slapped a “poor” rating to the Nagpur surface. In quest of a winning start India would also be weighing options to stay out of the “poor” trap.