“Straight-up pitch doctoring”: Craddock, O’Donnell and Gillespie respond to Nagpur pitch reports
Cricket fans have been sent into a spin after pictures emerged of the pitch for the first Test between India and Australia at Nagpur.
SEN’s Bharat Sundaresan shared the images which went viral on Twitter a day out from the Test starting, where it appeared different parts of the pitch were being prepared differently.
According to Sundaresan, ground staff watered the centre of the pitch and off-side for right-handers at either end, but left the leg-side dry as well as only rolling the centre of the wicket.
Interesting treatment of the pitch in Nagpur. The groundstaff watered the entire centre of the surface & only the length areas outside the left-hander’s leg stump & then rolled only the centre, stopping short every time they got to the good length areas at both ends #IndvAus pic.twitter.com/Myr2ZblqCg
— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) February 7, 2023
Given Australia could have five left-handers – David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Matt Renshaw and Alex Carey – in their top seven, it’s been theorised that curators are attempting to dry out the area of the pitch to their off-side, allowing the likes of Ravi Ashwin to bowl into a rough and test their forward defence.
That tactic could clearly advantage the home side, given that only Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel are left-handers, with both unlikely to bat in the top six if selected
Responding to the images, cricket figures Robert Craddock, Simon O’Donnell and Jason Gillespie all gave their takes on the Nagpur pitch across the SEN network.
Check out their thoughts below.
Robert Craddock
“It’s a multi-toned pitch,” Craddock said on SEN Whateley.
“The classic saying about pitches is, ‘Oh, it’s the same for everyone’.
“When the Gabba pitch too much grass was left on it, people were saying, ‘Yes, it was not a great wicket, but it was the same everyone’.
“But you can’t say that about this pitch, Australia has six left-handers in their top eight, so if you start multi-preparing parts of the deck that’s straight-up pitch doctoring, it’s poor.
“90 per cent of me feels frustrated about it, but the other 10 per cent is it’s a narrative for the series, it’s just building up beautifully, isn’t it?
“It’s a bit of old-fashioned hijinks, Test cricket needs these plots and the drama side of me enjoys it.”
Simon O’Donnell
“The ICC should step in and do something about it, if they think it’s not right,” O’Donnell said on SEN Breakfast.
“If they think the pitch is not right, there’ll be an ICC referee at the game and the ICC will be watching this game.
“But there’s so many when it comes to India, we have all of these discussions, and nothing seems to happen.
“If they really think there’s a pitch here that doesn’t play to the normal standards of Test cricket and the characteristics of this ground, then the ICC need to do something.”
Jason Gillespie
“I think the Indian curators are looking at a way for India to have an advantage,” Gillespie told SEN WA Breakfast.
“They potentially think spin will play a huge role and that for the best chance to beat Australia will be to play to their strength.
“Here in Australia, curators are under instructions to produce the best possible pitch they can prepare, that’s Australia wide.”
The first Test between India and Australia in Nagpur begins at 3pm (AEDT) on Thursday.
Listen to every ball of the Test Series LIVE on the SEN app, download for Apple and Android.
Photo: @beastieboy07 Twitter.