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Melbourne. The Indian team expressed dissatisfaction with the practice pitches ahead of the fourth Test against Australia and blamed the uneven bounce of the pitch for Rohit Sharma’s knee injury, but MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) curator Matt Page defended the pitches. Said that ‘standard protocol’ was followed in this. Rohit suffered swelling in his left knee while trying to play a throwdown from support staff member Dayanand Garani and did not practice in the nets on Sunday.
The team learned that the captain had to apply ice to a swollen leg on the night and the team’s ‘think tank’ blamed the uneven bounce of the pitch. The Indian team had sent its training schedule two months ago but the MCG curators stuck to the standard operating procedure of providing a new practice pitch just three days before the Test match. The fourth test will start from 26th December. On why India did not get a pitch similar to the main one, Page told reporters, “We prepare the pitch here three days in advance. If teams come and play before that, they will get the same pitches that we have available.
Defending the move, Page said, “So today we’re on new pitches.” If we had to play this morning they would have played on those new pitches. Three days in advance is standard procedure for us. We make our own pitches which we need for our Test matches.” When asked whether he was aware of the Indian schedule and whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had informed Cricket Australia (CA), he said Answered positively. “Yes, they gave us the program,” Page said. There has been correspondence between CA and the Indian board and I don’t know what happened in them.
The MCG will not have the bounce like Perth or the seam movement like Gabba but the pitch will still be conducive for fast bowling due to the six mm grass. Page said that there would not be enough cracks to help the spinners. Page said, “Seven years ago the pitch was very flat, we want an exciting match and an exciting Test match so we will leave more grass which makes the bowlers’ role.” After this it will be good for batting. “We’ll lay down six mm of grass and see how things go.”
So will Jasprit Bumrah be excited after seeing the wicket? Page replied, “All the fast bowlers are excited when they come here, although it is not as fast a wicket as Perth and Brisbane but we have been successful in making it suitable for fast bowling.” Ravindra Jadeja batting all-rounder in foreign conditions. The role plays more and Page said there is not much help for the spinners. He said, “The pitch will not break up to help the spinners and if you look at the longer format matches in the last four to five years, you will see that it has been more suited to fast bowling than spin.