The state of the pitches is a major talking point, rightly or wrongly, every time a team tours the subcontinent. So what kind of surfaces can Australia expect when their Test series kicks off in India next week?
When the non-Asian teams arrive in India there tends to be a lot of fretting about the possibility the decks will be ‘raging turners’ – surfaces which offer excessive assistance to the spinners from day one onwards.
There have been some Indian Test pitches which have justified such a damning label. The 2015 Test series between India and South Africa was marred by an awful surface at Nagpur, where there was huge variations in turn and bounce from the very first session.
That deck received a ‘poor’ rating from the ICC and was even condemned by sections of the Indian media. Since then however, the Test pitches in India have been very fair.
India have hosted nine Tests in the past five months and not one of them has involved a pitch which was of substandard condition or clearly doctored to suit the home team. The reality is that this current Indian team does not need a skerrick of help from the curators – they are unstoppable at home.
India have won eight of those nine recent home Tests, each time by a big margin, with just one draw – against England at Najkot in November, on a pitch that provided minimal help for the spinners until the final two days.
Rather than being too spin-friendly, as is the common concern over Indian pitches, the surfaces in that series against England were perhaps too amenable to batting. India’s average first innings total across the five Tests was a whopping 550.
There was more in the pitches for the spinners in the preceding three-Test series against New Zealand, which India won 3-0. Again though, not one of those three surfaces was a dustbowl to give a major advantage to slow bowlers.
The surfaces in that series were similar to those Australia received in Sri Lanka last year – slow, low and offering reasonable turn and natural variation. Australia managed to collapse over and again on those sporting pitches.
While it’s impossible to predict exactly how the pitches in India will play, I don’t expect them to be significantly more helpful to spinners than the surfaces in Sri Lanka. Part of the reason it is so difficult to make predictions about the upcoming decks is that three of the venues have never before hosted a Test.
The grounds for the first, third and fourth Tests – Pune, Ranchi and Dharamsala respectively – will host Tests for the first time, with only second-Test venue Bangalore a known quantity.
In the past 43 years, 21 Tests have been played at Bangalore. Australia have played at that ground during three of their previous four Test series in India.
Most recently, in 2010, Australia managed to crumble to a seven-wicket loss despite posting 478 in the first innings. Prior to that, in 2008, Australia turned in a strong performance, setting India 299 to win in the fourth innings before the match ended in a draw.
And in 2004, Australia dominated the hosts in Bangalore, winning by 217 runs on the back of a sparkling 151 on debut by Michael Clarke.
The most recent Test at Bangalore, in November 2015, was washed out, but not before South Africa were rolled for 214 batting first, with India’s star spin duo Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja combining for eight wickets.
Bangalore shapes as the pitch most likely to take significant spin in the upcoming series, but it remains to be seen whether the other three decks will offer anything more than the ordinary amounts of spin seen during recent Tests in India.
Regardless, Australia have picked four spinners in a Test squad for the first time in more than 20 years, with Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Mitchell Swepson and Ashton Agar all selected.
Australia look likely to start the series with two specialist spinners (Lyon and O’Keefe) and two frontline quicks (Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood) plus an all-rounder batting at six or seven. Whether that all-rounder is a spinner, in Glenn Maxwell or Ashton Agar, or a seamer in Mitch Marsh will depend on the tourists’ reading of the Pune pitch.
The surface which may suit Australia the most is Dharamsala. At an altitude of 1457 metres, temperatures are likely to be in the low-20C range – cool conditions that make it seem unlikely the pitch will be too dry. It could potentially be moist enough to bring Hazlewood, Starc and Marsh into the game.
But, make no mistake, this series will be decided by spin, even though the pitches do not seem likely to be dustbowls.
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Anindya – You've labelled an entire nation as "terrorist state", in Cricket forum!, not once but twice and have been moderated, but that has not stopped you. Good form.... "Pay attention when someone gets mad, that is when their true colors show"
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Tana - The last two comments you have made have unfortunately been pretty personal. It's one of the perils of discussions but doesn't happen often here. Pity you have taken it there. So I shall step away from this. There are people on this thread who have followed both my writing and my comments for a long time on this forum. I have never ever discussed religion or attacked it. Here or in my personal life. It's an irrelevant issue as far as I am concerned. Not so I ever bring politics into my discussions. Terrorism - I will condemn and criticise and rile against, whatever the forum, if there is context. And when it comes to Pakistan's home games, that is the reason and there is indeed context. I have personally survived Pakistani terrorist attacks in Mumbai and lost two close friends in the process. But I have nothing personally against Pakistani Cricketers and I admire a huge number of them and always have. Last night, I had a piece published on Afridi and if you read the piece you will see how I feel about pakistani Cricketers. http://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/shahid-afridi-quits-crickets-peter-pan-lays-his-bat-down-578561 So mate, don't give me this bull and lay off the sermonising about being Aussie which makes you holier than thou. And I would strongly suggest you also lay off the very personal attacks. If you can't debate without it, perhaps you should lay off The Roar as well like you do Cricinfo.
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Anindya - The reason I stopped participating in comments section on CircInfo (over 5 years now), cause blokes like you turn everything about India/Pakistan, and before you know it terrorism/politics/religion is attacked/discussed which is disgraceful. Beauty of Australia and being an Australian is.... just walk away.
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Shubham - Kohli is a GUN. What I mean is it would be great to watch Virat ( who is a GUN), play against Strac on a more balanced wicket. That is a contest I, and many cricket fans, will stay up to watch. That's all. Stop arguing like my Uncle, who still thinks Gavaskar was the greatest batsman that ever lived, and praise of a batsman other than Gavaskar is met with how great Gavaskar was... his exploits in West Indies...and no helmet :) Enjoy the series, hope it's a ripper and more importantly played on sporting wickets ;)
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Anindya - Mate, why are you going off? What part of my statement/s praised Pakistan? Ironic you talk of bias. "It’s a poor team with a couple of decent players" The team you call poor performed way better in England and in Australia (despite 3-0 scoreline in Auz) than India did. Not bad for a poor team. If you think that a poor team can draw a test series in England, then someone seriously needs to have a look at your GURU title. That county hasn't had a home game in over a decade, yet keep punching above their weight. Bias...delusion....or lack of self reflection.....
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Nice points Shubham. I have said this before a few times on this forum, and written a couple of pieces on kohli as well, so could not agree more on where he is today and where he will go. Anyone who argues that he has a bad record as a traveler anywhere other than the last english tour needs to check their facts and go easy on their bias. And just on the point about the current Pakistan team being one of the best in the business just because they have Australia a bit of a fight, that's just wrong. It's a poor team with a couple of decent players and the only time they earned my complete respect on this tour was the 4th innings fight back when they almost pulled off a victory. That aside, anyone who thinks they are a good team is deluding themselves.
Shubham sharma
Guest
I am not defending him , I am stating the obvious fact, he smashed Johnson and Ryan Harris to all parts in his previous tour, I don't know how much you want him tested now. If you watch India's tour of sa then you will immediately know that he absolutely hammered steyn and more in conditions where ball was darting around. He took a special liking boult as well in NZ. He averages about 70 in sa,aus and NZ. Only place he hasn't scored is eng, people may call it a bad patch or some may call it a technical deficiency , I don't what it was but what I can tell you is he averaged 109 in the recent series in eng at home and he won't be averaging any less when India will tour eng in 2018. As for against spin, everybody knows he is unmatched, I have been watching cricket for past 15,20 years but he is the greatest player of spin I have ever seen and I have watched likes of Dravid,miandad, lara, sangakkara play. The guy has played more than 6 years of international cricket and is only batsman on this planet ever to average 50+ in all formats . He already has 43 international hundreds, many great players after their careers won't have more centuries than this and kohli is just starting.. My point is I don't know how much you want him tested, if 6 years of international cricket around the globe isn't enough than nothing will be enough. He is easily the best batsman currently Abd is the most destructive and exciting batsmen currently, nobody else comes near
Bakkies
Guest
England's problem is that compromised their bowling. They got the runs but couldn't take 20 wickets to put themselves in a position to win the game
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Shubham - mate, your argument is everywhere, I'm not sure what you are trying to say. I'll have a go to few of your points anyway. "even against weaker opposition like Pakistan" Pakistain is the only side, lately, to draw (almost win) and dominate a Test series in England. Australia/SAF/India all failed. I would not call them weak. "they have lost past two ashes series comprehensively in England" Wrong again. Our last Ashes result was 3-2 to England. Hardly qualifies for 'comprehensively' lost. "You can ridicule India" What part of my statement ridicules? "As for virat kohli, he is class apart" Virat is brilliant batsman, he has weaknesses like all players do. Why are you defending him? I simply stated I would like to see him tested by Stac and Co on conditions that dont' massively favor batsmen, and that would be a great contest. I'm admiring him. On best batsman, IMO, you need to score runs on all kind of pitches (seaming, spinning, bouncy) to qualify for that. But, that's just my opinion.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"I am completely correct in what I said....Australia lost to eng,sl and in UAE in every game that they played." You say "I am completely correct" and then immediately make the mistake of saying Australia lost every Test in England, when in fact they won two Tests there last time.
Shubham sharma
Guest
Yes venues are not typical Indian venues and what I have seen cricket in those venues, couple of them do favour fast bowlers, one tends to be a batting paradise and only Ranchi is the one that will definitely spin. Others we don't know
Shubham sharma
Guest
Simon doull and Scott styres I meant to say
Shubham sharma
Guest
I honestly disagree with you, now to counter me you will pull out stats from five years or 10 years but more recently Australia have a record of winning 2 games out of 21 in subcontinent even against weaker opposition like Pakistan and so, they have lost past two ashes series comprehensively in England. Basically they lost heavily in spinning conditions in Ind,sl and flat low bounce pitches in uae and seaming and swinging condition in eng. You can ridicule India of their away record but with all due respect current Australian team hasn't done anything for you to point a finger at India's away record without pointing 3 fingers back at Australia's. As for the contest , everybody loves contest but if a bowler can bowl in certain conditions or a batsman can bat only on certain pitches then it's their deficiency ,we should not blame surfaces for that. As for virat kohli, he is class apart, he can smash any bowler on any surface if he gets set.Just watch is 235 on an absolute raging Turner in Mumbai and then watch his innings in Kolkata against NZ on a seaming wicket with variable bounce. Even Simon skill and Scott stores after that knock said he has to be the best batsman by some distance
Shubham sharma
Guest
I am completely correct in what I said, I stated couple of years not 4 years and what I can remember Australia lost to eng,sl and in UAE in every game that they played.
Tana Mir
Roar Rookie
Mate - What part of my statement makes you think I don't hold"multidimensional views" on cricket? Let me have another go at were I'm coming from. India's form at home and overseas sit on extreme and opposite ends of the scale. I hope that changes, I would love to see pitches in India that show different personality. Mohali used to be fast, even that has become a turner. Not good for Indian cricket. With the money available to BCCI and the interest by general public, they have got to do better overseas (England/Aus/SAF) Australia/England/SAF have to fight with other sports (Rugby/Soccer/Football) to attract talent, Asian countries don't have that issue. What I'm trying to get at is, with the money/resources India has at it's disposal they have to win games in England/Auz, and the first step is create more sporting pitches not just in First Class but in Test Matches. Good news is that has started to happen in domestic games. AS a cricket fans not many would want to watch Virat smash Starc on a turner. Watching Virat struggle and earn hard fought runs on more sporting wicket against Starc and co is something fans will stay up all night to watch. Australia offered SAF the wickets that perfectly suited the visiting teams and Australia lost, the result was: 1 Guys like Renshaw and Handscomb were brought in. 2. Khawaja playing an epic innings, within himself, at Adelaide. 3. Renshaw demonstrating value of occupying the crease and taking shine of the ball 4. Warner learns (hopefully) on seaming wickets, smashing every ball is not going to work. 5. Hazelwood learn to pitch the ball up. The loss was painful but long term gain should be an Ashes win in 2019!
Rohit SEN
Roar Rookie
Is this compiled correctly? Didn't West Indies beat Pakistan recently in Sharjah in October 2016? Fake news impacting cricket authors also ?
Tapeshwer Singh
Roar Rookie
Current aussie batsmen are probably the worst players of spinamong the top5 teams ,leave out smith maybe. England for thier part did bat well ,though the pitches helped too as they dint turn till day 3 in most cases.
Tapeshwer Singh
Roar Rookie
england had swann then,easily the best spinner on form back then and not to forget panesar,who did a terrific support job
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"In fact Australia might have the worst record in overseas over past couple of years." Haha Shubham why would you even throw that out there when you clearly don't know if it's true or not?! I'll help you out - you're very wrong. Australia have the second best record away from home in Tests over the past four years (behind only SA). Test records away from home in last 4-years (full home and away Test cycle): 1. South Africa ….. 1 win per 2.8 Tests. 2. Australia ……….. 1 win per 3.2 Tests 3. Pakistan ……….. 1 win per 3.5 Tests 4. New Zealand …. 1 win per 3.7 Tests 5. Sri Lanka ………. 1 win per 3.8 Tests 6. India …………….. 1 win per 4.2 Tests 7. England ………… 1 win per 6.2 Tests 8. West Indies ……. 0 wins
Simoc
Guest
Strangely I'm seeing Indian commentary saying the venues selected favour Australias fast bowlers somewhat akin to us having the vintage Windies and todays South Africa playing the first tests against us at Perth. Why? If Australia can win one of the first two tests that will be excellent for the series and everyone.