Ahead of the day-night Test in Ahmedabad, India opener Rohit Sharma and England pacer James Anderson expected the pitch to be not too different from the one we saw for the second match in Chennai.
“It’s still early days to talk about the pitch but I don’t see anything changing in the pitch (from) what we played in the second Test match. It’s gonna be more or less on the same page,” the Indian opener said during a virtual media interaction on Sunday.
“It’s gonna be turning as well. We are preparing accordingly. When the day comes, we need to still assess what it is doing. It’s been a while since an international game has happened on this ground.”
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Anderson is confident that the newly laid track at the Motera Stadium will not have too much grass for the upcoming day-night Test against India even though there is a nice green cover on it at the moment.
The third Test, to be played with pink ball, will start from Wednesday and for England’s premier fast bowler, he doesn’t expect it to behave much differently from the second Test track at the Chepauk which India won by 317 runs.
“The pitch, it has got grass on it but I am pretty sure it’s not going to be there when we turn up on the match day,” Anderson said during a virtual conference with British media on Sunday, reported PTI.
“So we have to wait and watch. As seam bowlers, we have to be prepared to bowl as best we can in any given condition. If it swings, it’s great and if it does not, we still have a job to do,” Anderson said.
He felt that the pink SG Test ball that he bowled with during the net sessions, swung more than its red counterpart.
“Look this is the second pink Test in India and first in February so we don’t know how it would behave.”
He also urged critics of the much-debated rotation policy to look at the “bigger picture”, considering the massive amount of cricket to be played by the England team in the coming days.
England did not play Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood in the first two Tests but have brought them back for the final two games as part of a rotation policy while first-choice keeper Jos Buttler is back home after the opening Test. The idea is to help players cop up with life inside the bio-bubble.
“You have got to try and look at the bigger picture. The idea was if I missed that one, that would give me the best chance of being fit and firing for the pink-ball Test,” Anderson said.
(With PTI inputs)