Even before a ball was bowled in the 2023 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the talks of ‘doctored pitches’ took the cricketing world by storm.
The ground staff at VCA stadium in Nagpur was seen preparing the pitch for the first Test with some selective watering, leading to Australian media accusing the hosts of doctoring the surface to trouble the visiting team’s left-handed batters.
Amid the outrage, Australia coach Andrew McDonald played down the pitch concerns, saying that he is “excited by the challenge that confronts us".
“Our job is to solve the problems that the wicket presents and that’s the great part about Test cricket, is the conditions change from country to country and from venue to venue within the country," McDonald told SEN’s Whateley on Thursday (February 9).
“Clearly it’s dry and it’s what we probably expected, to be honest. Coming to Nagpur, the message was it is the biggest turning wicket in India and (with) high reverse swing. I think it all matches up and we’re excited by the challenge that confronts us. I think we’ve all seen the same pitch circulating around," he added.
With the Australian side studded with left-handers, Indian spinners are expected to gain advantage from the dry surface.
“Yeah, there’s no doubt that we’ve got a heavy left-hand line-up. It’s dryer up one side and a little bit more moisture up the other. It’s going to create some problems and we’ve got some really good problem solvers in our batting line-up that I think can combat that," McDonald stated.
The Australia coach doesn’t think India had been unfair to the touring side while preparing pitches.
“I don’t think so. I think that you play your home conditions. We’ve got extra bounce in Australia and sometimes some grass. They call it Test cricket for a reason. All your skills get tested and having different conditions in different countries is great. It would be a plain old game if the conditions were the same everywhere you went.
“The conversations we have a little but more detailed when you get surfaces like this," he remarked.
