Sachin Tendulkar wants Ranji Trophy to be played on two different pitches

Despite there already being massive changes introduced in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has an even more “radical” solution to help groom batsmen who can thrive in foreign conditions. The leading run scorer in international cricket wants Ranji Trophy matches to be played on two separate pitches.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Saturday, he suggested that the radical solution will help youngsters easily adapt to conditions outside Asia. Although the logistics of his suggestion are one of the experts to ponder, it certainly would be interesting to see the impact it could have.

"I have thought a lot about neutral venues in Ranji Trophy (which is being experimented this season). I have a suggestion which can be radical,” he said. “When we go to places like Australia, New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa, we play with Kookaburra balls which swings early. Think about a young Ranji batsman playing with SG Test in India and then facing difficulty overseas.”.

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He went on to suggest that this could be achieved by playing both innings on adjacent surfaces which would provide contrasting challenges to the batsmen and the bowler who would have the exposure of playing in different conditions from an early age.

"Let us have the first innings on a green top with Kookaburra balls which would give openers a challenge. Even bowlers will have something. Our spinners will also learn how to bowl with Kookaburra on Green tops," Tendulkar explained.

"Now let there be a pitch adjacent to the green top which would be a rank turner. Now the second innings will be played on that track with the SG Test ball which would also help our batsmen play against quality spin bowling. We have been too focussed on playing pace in overseas conditions but we should not forget how to play spin bowling. Don't forget even overseas teams are losing to us in India. May be they would start using SG in their domestic matches.”

The former Indian international believes that the presence of two contrasting tracks would also take the toss out of the equation.

"A captain would start thinking that winning the toss will give him only 10 percent advantage that is his right to choose first. But if he chooses to bowl on green top he should remember that he would need to bat on a Turner in the fourth innings,” Tendulkar concluded.

The summit is attended by a whole host of important personalities including the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Anurag Thakur and it will be interesting to see if any of the solutions that were suggested are introduced in the domestic circuit.

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