Cricket News

India and Bangladesh battle it out on a dark pitch in Kanpur in the second Test

Red soil will turn black. Jumping and carrying will pass. And don’t expect a level shooter.

In short, that is likely to be the nature of the pitch at Green Park in Kanpur, where the second and final Test of the India-Bangladesh series begins on September 27.

It is understood that unlike the real bounce that took place over four days in the first Test in Chennai last week, the Green Park pitch will be flat in nature, with less bounce and less movement as the Test progresses. This is due to the content of black soil in the area.

That is in contrast to the Chepauk pitch, where both teams’ seamers and spinners got a good bounce. That was the result of a red clay industrial complex bought in Mumbai two years ago. The bounce has been key with both teams fielding three fast bowlers. Although the degree of turn was not great, along with the bounce, the Chepauk pitch was good enough for the spinners, as shown by the Indian pair of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who took nine wickets between them in Bangladesh’s second innings. .

The slow pitch of Kanpur will definitely change the selection plans of both the teams. It is possible that the third seamer can be replaced by the third spinner. That means one of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel could get a chance for India.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh selector Hannan Sarkar said on Monday in Chennai that Shakib Al Hasan is an injury doubt after he injured his index finger while batting on the fourth day. Even if Shakib plays the Test as an allrounder, Bangladesh may bring in left-arm spinner Taijul Islam in place of Nahid Rana. The visitors also have midfielder Nayeem Hasan in the squad. He comes into the picture only if Shakib is not available, and Bangladesh still want to have three spinners in their line-up.
In the last Test played in Kanpur, against New Zealand in 2021, India played three spinners in Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar. That was the first Test played at this venue since 2016, which was also against New Zealand. One common thread running through those two Tests both lasted five days. While in 2016 India won comfortably, the New Zealand batsmen showed admirable resistance to draw the match in 2021.

Although it may be a tough task for the bowlers, the batsmen can breathe easy and can get high scores if there are no tricks from above. In the 2021 Test, Shreyas Iyer scored a hundred and fifty on debut and Tom Latham produced a rare masterclass from an overseas batsman to fend off India’s spinners, hitting half-centuries.

Additional reporting by Mohammad Isam


Source link

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button