Pitch talk: Grass shaved off good-length spots at Wankhede

Groundsmen work on the Wankhede pitch ahead of Friday’s second and final Test between India and NZ. Pic/Subodh Mayure

Though the outfield of Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium is lush green, the same cannot be said about the strip that is being prepared for the India versus New Zealand second and final Test, beginning Friday.

Ajinkya Rahane & Co were on the verge of victory in the Kanpur Test on Monday, but the slow and low Green Park wicket saw the match end in a draw on the fifth day.
Without a win on home turf in their first fixture of the ICC World Test Championship, India had to be content with four points along with the Kiwis (a win is worth 12 points while a tie is five). However, the hosts do not want a repeat of this in Mumbai and that's one of the reasons the Wankhede pitch, which had a good amount of grass till Monday evening, saw it shaved off totally on Tuesday.

The good-length spots at both ends were specifically being attended to by a group of six groundsmen under the watchful eye of BCCI's chief curator Ashish Bhowmick along with Mumbai Cricket Association curator Ramesh Mhamunkar and Brabourne Stadium curator Prakash Adhav.

It is learnt that the groundsmen were not only taking off the grass and dust at the good-length, but also roughing up the surface using a brush. It is also learnt that the wicket has not been watered for the last two days. If this continues for the next couple of days, the spinners could come into play as early as Day Two of the Test. They would simply need to bowl in the rough areas and the ball will do the rest.

Former India Test opener and Wankhede Stadium's ex-curator Sudhir Naik, who is well aware of the nature of Wankhede's red soil, believes Day One will belong to the fast bowlers.

"With my experience of the Wankhede wicket, I feel there will be good bounce on Day One and the fast bowlers will come into play. On the second day, it will be a good batting track, but going by what I have heard that they [curators] might brush and rough the good length surface, then the spinners could start dominating the proceedings from the second day," Naik, 76, told mid-day on Tuesday.

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