Nagpur pitch to be batting friendly, ICC issues directives

The pitch at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium in Nagpur has been in the news ever since the third test match between India and South Africa late last year. The pitch then offered considerable turn and bite right from day 1 and the match was over well before 3 days. Jeff Crowe, the ICC match referee had labelled the wicket ‘poor’ and also issued a warning.

Nagpur has played hosts to the qualifying rounds of the ongoing T20 world cup, and the pitches used have been slow and dry assisting spinners. India will kick-start their campaign against New Zealand in Nagpur on March 15, and hence, the ICC has issued specific directives to prepare a pitch that will batsman-friendly.

"ICC has given us clear guidelines to prepare pitches for the World T20 matches which will assist strokeplay.We are strictly following these instructions," the ground staff at the VCA stadium said.

This might prove to be a significant setback to the Indian thinktank who rely heavily on the performance of their spinners. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been instrumental to the cause of the T20 side, and their performances during the middle overs dictate the outcome of the game.

Ashwin is in the midst of an extended purple match and many cricket pundits have tipped him to be the standout performer during this tournament. The off-spinner who is very vocal on social media has made his intentions pretty clear and is not the one to take a back step. He has become the go-to bowler for skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni at anyu critical stage of the game, and whether this directive will have any bearing on his performance remains to be seen.

However, after the ticket fiasco, the VCA officials have said that all the tickets for the match in the 44,900-capacity stadium have been sold out.

India are going into the tournament as favourites but are placed in a tricky group along with New Zealand, Australia, arch-rivals Pakistan and Bangladesh who qualified after defeating Oman.