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The pitch for the second Test in Delhi is already causing dramas days before a ball is bowled with groundstaff trying to ban Australian media banned from taking photos of the wicket.
And it looks like the groundstaff have prepared a surface with readymade rough on a good length for spinners, which is expected to suit the home side’s three-pronged arsenal of Ravichandran Aswhin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
The spinning trio tore through Australia in Nagpur last week on a pitch which was prepared to have a dry area outside the off stump for left-handers at both ends.
This time around, the Delhi pitch also looks to have a flat area through the middle of the wicket for the seamers to land their shorter-length deliveries and then what NewsCorp reporter Peter Lalor described as “a crack house” for full-length balls.
Groundstaff on Wednesday also tried to prevent accredited Australian media members from taking photos of the wicket, according to The Age.
After a media member was initially told to be at least 30 metres away from the centre square, they were then instructed to go to the boundary and not take any footage at all.
It was a moot point as the Getty photographer had already taken photos of the pitch as the Australians trained nearby on another pitch on the centre square.
The Australians train at Delhi two pitches away from the centre-wicket Test strip. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Left-arm quick Mitchell Starc had a searching hit-out as he tried to prove he is ready to make a return from a finger injury. Speaking to media, he believed the pitches the team have prepared on in the lead-up to the Test will be similar to how the main strip behaves in the Test itself.
“It looks pretty dry. The groundsman said the nets look pretty similar and the two days we trained on were really low and took a lot of turn,” Starc told reporters. “If that’s an indication, then that’s what it’s going to be like.
“Having a look the last couple of days it looks like it’s prepared pretty similar as well.”
The dry wicket could count against Starc’s chances of a recall with Australia looking at bringing in spin bolter Matt Kuhnemann alongside Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy, particularly if all-rounder Cameron Green is cleared to make a comeback from his broken finger.
Batters from both teams were down on all fours inspecting the wicket with India also training at the ground on Wednesday.
The Australian batters appeared spooked by the conditions at Nagpur even though the pitch turned out to be nowhere near the raging turner it had been made out to be in the lead-up to the match.
Australia must avoid defeat in the second Test to have any chance of wresting back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from India before the series moves to Indore and Ahmedabad.
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India have not lost a Test at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium since 1987.
“Obviously a challenge of a week but we move onto the second Test and it presents a new challenge,” Starc said. “I’m not sure we’ll see conditions change too much from last week with how the guys have discussed it.”
Australia boldly dropped Travis Head, the world’s No.4 batter, for the first Test based on his poor record in Asia.
Peter Handscomb, in his first Test since 2019, performed serviceably at No.6, but Matt Renshaw had a nightmare match with scores of 0 and 2 batting in Head’s usual position.
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