India vs England: Another 'pitch'ed battle in offing?

Ashish Bhowmick, the BCCI chief curator, overseeing the newly relaid pitch at the Motera, can’t get this one wrong.

Actually, it won’t matter even if he does, as long as India win the fourth Test at the Narendra Modi stadium and seal the series against England 3-1.

Of course, he will have to face ‘witty’ brickbats from the likes of Michael Vaughan’s meme brigade, which is not nearly hard these days. But after what was on offer in the two-day day-night Test of a week ago, he will pray that the surface remains ‘good’ for at least three days - that’s how little is asked of pitches these days.

For that, given the sauna that is Ahmedabad this time of the year (average temperature hovering around a pleasant 37.5 degrees celsius), he will have to leave extra grass on the strip.

What Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, makes of the added millimetres entirely depends on how the toss goes. Should India win, they will want to bat first and ensure they play out early swing before digging into spinners, who will take a little longer than in the pink-ball Test to come into the picture.

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An exciting prospect for India to entertain because this way their batsmen won’t be made out again against England’s spinners. Though they won the previous game by ten wickets, their batting was as abysmal - that too against Jack Leach and Joe Root - as memory allows.

While the 36 against Australia in Adelaide last year was an embarrassing badge, India haven’t fared as poorly as this at home since their breakdown against South Africa in 2008. Coincidentally, it came on the same ground and the Proteas won that by an innings and 90 runs.

India can’t afford such a loss at this stage, especially given that their progress to the World Test Championship final is at stake. Should England repeat the result of the first Test, they will inadvertently orchestrate an Australia-New Zealand finale.

For the task of at least coming away with a draw to qualify, India will go with the same combination of two pacers and three spinners, with pacer Umesh Yadav coming in for Jasprit Bumrah, who is said to have taken leave from the series for his marriage.

Also read: Forgotten art of playing spin

The rest of the playing eleven, if Kohli is to be believed, will remain the same with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill on top followed by Cheteshwar Pujara, Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Pant.

The tempo of the game, though, will once again remain in the tweaking fingers of R Ashwin, Axar Patel, and if pressed, Washington Sundar.

England, to avoid the humiliation for the third time in a row, will bring in off-spinner Dom Bess to complement left-arm orthodox Leach. They will also have the services of part-time brilliant Root, the off-spinner, obviously!

The visiting team’s concern, however, lies with their batting. Barring their morale-boosting performance in the first innings of the first Test in Chennai, England have come a cropper. In fact, 178 - their score in the second innings of the same Test - is their highest innings tally in five innings since.

Lest we forget, India have only fared marginally better with the bat, an easily ignorable fact given that they have won two Tests in a row. But it’s a concern when considering our history as turning-track-savants.

Kohli, on the eve of the Test, agreed that the skill required to play spin is lacking, and offered several reasons for its demise. Basically, the Indian skipper already made an excuse for his batsmen to fail again. Fortunately, the opposition is on the same boat, if not worse, ensuring a Test match hinges on the shoulders of spinners alone, again.