The slightly tacky pitches at the Wankhede in Mumbai and the Motera in Ahmedabad have raised eyebrows but India's bowling coach Morne Morkel was sympathetic towards the curators, stating that they have provided strips to the best of their abilities.
Key Points
- Surfaces at Wankhede Stadium and Narendra Modi Stadium have raised concerns.
- Indian batters struggled to accelerate due to moisture and grip on the surfaces.
- Morkel ays predicting pitch behaviour precisely remains extremely difficult..
In Mumbai and Ahmedabad, most of the Indian batters struggled to force the pace as there was underlying moisture in one surface and the ball did grip a bit in the other.
"You know, credit to the curators for, like you say, so late in the season still producing wickets that are 200 plus surfaces. It's a nightmare," Morkel replied to a query from PTI.
A free-flowing stroke maker like Tilak Varma had found it difficult to get going in earlier games and even Suryakumar Yadav took his time.
"I can think of it being a job of everybody wanting certain expectations of the fans, high-scoring games. There's a lot of pressure on those guys. They put a lot of hard work into giving us the best surface that they can
prepare," he said ahead of India's Super Eight match against South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
'Very hard to say a wicket is going to play this way'
For Morkel, it's very difficult to predict what is an ideal surface.
"I still think till this day it's very hard to say a wicket is going to play this way. I think we're all always standing. We've got some sort of ideas. There's moisture. It looks a little bit dry. It will hold or skid on.
"But in terms of controlling the wicket and saying this is how it's going to play, it's very hard to call that bang on.
"So that's why, for me, it is so important that you have guys that can sum up the conditions quite well."
Morkel didn't quite answer if the pitches are tiring because of over use during domestic season and is becoming difficult for batting.
"And I think so far this tournament we've done that really well with batting and bowling. Bar the one game, the first game, I think it wasn't a 200-plus surface. It was maybe a 170 surface, and we went out a little bit too hard at the start.
"But again, that was the learning. So every game there's been learning so far, and I think that's the beauty about this game, is that they will be learning from the surface every time," Morkel said.
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