Delhi: India’s bespoke preparation of the pitch for the first Test against Australia in Nagpur has avoided censure from the International Cricket Council.
After the pitches were the subject of enormous discussion before the series, senior cricket sources told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald the surface in Nagpur has been handed an “average” rating from the ICC and its match referee, Zimbabwe’s Andy Pycroft.
Steve Smith and David Warner of Australia check the pitch during a training session before the Nagpur Test.Credit:Getty Images
The strip for the second Test in Delhi, where Australia pushed India for two days before falling in a heap on the third, was also given an “average” rating by Pycroft, meaning that the surface was deemed fair if not perfect.
Those ratings, of a pair of pitches that turned and bounced for spinners from the first session on day one, also factored in how India were able to accumulate a first innings of 400 on the Nagpur strip, either side of Australia’s two modest tallies.
On Australia’s previous tour in 2017, the sharply spinning deck for the first Test in Pune was rated “poor” by the match referee Chris Broad, before he deemed an unpredictable pitch in Bengaluru as “below average” for the second.
But the 2023 pitch ratings were more consistent with those handed down by the match referee Javagal Srinath for similarly sharp-turning surfaces prepared after India went 1-0 down to England in 2021, ultimately winning the series 3-1.
On that occasion, a more benign pitch for the first Test in Chennai was rated “very good”, before those prepared for the second Test, also in Chennai, and the third in Ahmedabad, which lasted less than two days, were each rated “average”.
For Australia, the preparation of the Nagpur pitch was a source of considerable interest, particularly when images emerged of “selective watering” of the track to ensure the areas outside the off stump of the left-handers were left dry for spin bowlers.
The process was conducted with India’s captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid watching closely, ahead of a series India needed to win by a wide margin to make the World Test Championship final in England later this year.