Ind vs Aus 4th test on Green Top? What’s on Rohit’s mind for World Test Championship 2021-23: India captain Rohit Sharma made a suggestion before his team’s third Border Gavaskar Trophy Test match against Australia that if they win the series 3-0 and secure a seat in the WTC final match, they might ask for a green surface for the fourth and final Test in Ahmedabad so they can prepare on it for England’s pace-friendly conditions.
India have beaten Australia in Australia and also beaten Australia in India. India currently is leading the series 2-0 with all the dominance of their spinners in the two Test matches played in Nagpur and Delhi. The third test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia will begin on March 1 at Indore’s Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Australia is currently leading the ICC WTC standing followed by India and both of them are the favorites to meet in the World Test Championship final which is slated to be held in June this year at the Oval, England.
In both of the first two test matches this year, India preferred low bounce, spin-aiding surfaces, although, in the past, India has built seamer-friendly home pitches in an effort to win significant away series. In terms of preparation for their tour to South Africa, they faced Sri Lanka at home in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on a green, pacer-friendly track during the 2017–18 season. The strategy worked well because seamers took 32 of the competition’s 35 wickets.
Rohit Sharma Hints At Using Green Pitch In 4th Test Ind vs Aus
Indian captain Rohit Sharma indicated that if his team wins in Indore, they might follow suit and plan a WTC final practice match on the pace-friendly surface in Ahmedabad. He added that since Shardul Thakur, India’s go-to all-rounder for pace-bowling in foreign conditions, is not included in the squad for the series and hasn’t played competitive cricket in over a month, selection might potentially be difficult. During the break between the second and third Tests, Rohit went to Shardul’s wedding.
Rohit spoke to ESPNcricinfo and stated, “It will be a great achievement for us [to reach the WTC final], but we know that we need to cross that final hurdle, and for that, we need to win the next game as well, so the focus is on this Test, how we can win this game, and not look too far ahead, because after this game we have got one more Test match to be played, and then after that, there are two months of IPL.”
When Rohit was asked if a green surface could be dished up in Ahmedabad, home to the world’s biggest cricket stadium, he replied “There is definitely a possibility of that. We have already spoken about it. We need to get the guys ready for it as well. The important one is Shardul Thakur because he comes into that plan for us.”
“I do not know how ready he is, knowing that he just got married. We do not know how many overs he has bowled. But yeah, that thought process is definitely there. If we do what we do here and we get the result we want, we might think of doing something different in Ahmedabad for sure,” he added.
“There is a lot of time to think about the final, but right now it is very important for us to focus on this one and see how we can turn it around and win this game as well because in the last game, we were put under pressure for sure, we can expect the same here as well, so we need to be ready for that,” the Indian skipper said.
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