India vs Bangladesh: The pitch for Indore Test expected to assist the pace bowlers

It’s been that sort of a revolution, ain’t it? A few years ago if someone had told you Team India will dish out hard, pacer-friendly track going into their home Test, you’d have laughed, shrugging all of the claims with disdain. But, under Virat Kohli‘s leadership, India now has all the ammunition to their armoury. No longer do they require rank turners to walk past the visiting sides.

And, if the reports are to be believed, the Holkar Stadium in Indore could dish out another seamer-friendly pitch during the first Test match, starting November 14th. The curator at the Holkar Stadium has been employing red soil to prepare the wickets for both domestic and international matches.

The curator had garnered special praise from former domestic stalwart Amol Muzumdar during the 2018 Ranji Trophy final between Vidarbha and Delhi. That pitch had something to keep everyone interested. While the pacers from both sides enjoyed the pace and bounce from the track, two centuries and seven half-centuries were also scored in the process.

“Red soil wickets offer good bounce. It helps the pacers and if batsmen apply themselves, it’s good for stroke-making. Besides, it also offers turn as the game progresses. It’s going to be a good sporting wicket where everyone will get something,” a source told the Times of India.

Indore pitch can be a safe haven for India’s fast bowlers

Unlike the early days of Virat Kohli’s captaincy where rank turners were dished out, the team management has been quite vocal in the past two years about taking the pitch out of the equation and the MPCA officials denied receiving any preparation request from the team.

“India have covered most of the bases. They have become a team which can win on any surface. They did well on hard, bouncy wickets in Australia. On square turners too, they are very hard to beat,” the source further added.

Since the start of 2018, Indian pacers have taken 241 wickets across 20 Tests at an average of 21.74 and a strike-rate of 43.9. The last time India played a Test in Indore, Ravi Ashwin claimed 13 of the 20 New Zealand wickets during the hosts 321-run-win. However, with the pacers in such great form and the pitch expected to be a hard track, one can expect the cartwheeling of stumps, as witnessed during the South African series.

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