South Africa head coach Mark Boucher has, on Monday (July 5), expressed his fear that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) pitches might massively support spinners in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 after being worn out by the hosting of the IPL 2021's second half.
The remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) is scheduled to be held from September 19 to October 15 in the UAE – where the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 will begin on October 17 and Boucher feels the pitches are going to be a bit dry and worn after the T20 league and will support the spinners most in the mega ICC event later this year.
As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Boucher said: “The wickets after the IPL are going to be a bit dry. It’s not the same as we are used to back in South Africa where you can go out and bash your way to 180 to 200 runs. You’ve got to be skillful here; you’ve got to be smart.”
He added, “If anything, it’s going to go even further into subcontinent conditions, on the extreme side. They are playing the IPL there, there are not a lot of grounds and those wickets are going to be worn, so scores will probably go even further down.”
The South African coach also the batting will be tough on the UAE pitches as the spinners are going to play a key role on such wickets in the T20 World Cup.
He signed off by saying, “It’s going to be tough to bat on especially at the back end as we saw here. We will have an idea of what scores are going to be by watching the IPL and then taking a look and assess how the wickets are playing during the beginning part of the World Cup. I suspect spinners will play a massive role.”
(With PTI Inputs)
