Jennifer
All fans are one sleep away from the kick-off of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India. The Men in Blue will look to continue their home dominance. But, the Aussies will look to win the series in India after 2004/05. However, the first match is going to take place in Nagpur and the pitch has been in the headlines in the last few days.
On 7 February, some images of that pitch went viral when Cricket Australia shared them on Twitter. Both Steve Smith and David Warner were seen monitoring the pitch closely. However, after that, Steve Smith shared his views about the pitch with the reporters while KL Rahul also shared his insights about the same.
“Yes, there is the temptation to play three spinners because we’re playing in India.” – KL Rahul
Smith said: Steve Smith said: “Pretty dry, particularly one end. I think it will take a bit of spin, particularly the left-arm spinner taking it into our left-handers. There’s a section there that’s quite dry. Other than that, I can’t really get a good gauge on it. I don’t think there will be a heap of bounce in the wicket, I think it will be quite skiddy for the seamers and maybe a bit of up-and-down movement as the game goes on. The cracks felt quite loose. I’m not entirely sure – we’ll wait and see.”
Meanwhile, Rahul said: “Yes, we did see it (the pitch), but it’s still too early to really know what the pitch is going to do. We need to come here on the day of the match to know how it’s really going to play. We can only look at it and assume it’s going to play a certain way, but you never know with pitches. Yes, there is the temptation to play three spinners because we’re playing in India. We’ll take that call on the day of the game or the day before the game.”
Now, on 8 February, a renowned Australian news channel, ‘Fox Cricket’ shared some pictures of the pitch and accused team India of “straight-up pitch doctoring” the Nagpur pitch. According to their reports, only the centre of the Nagpur wicket was watered and rolled while the area where bowlers will target left-handers was left bone dry. It has happened on either end of the pitch. Hence, it has been claimed that this is just a deliberate ploy for team India for all the left-handed batters of Australia. They shared the images with a caption: “What’s going on here? Pictures expose bizarre Indian ploy as Aussie concerns grow over first Test pitch.” But, Indian fans came up and trolled the Australian media heavily after such an allegation.
Here is the shared tweet:
What's going on here? 🤔🤔🤔
Pictures expose bizarre Indian ploy as Aussie concerns grow over first Test pitch 👉 https://t.co/O6XuSbyG7V pic.twitter.com/OHEGP4VWRB
— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) February 7, 2023
Check out how badly fans have trolled the Australian media channel on Twitter for such an allegation:
Lol Abhi se rona shuru kardiya 🤣🤣😂.
— ILYAS (@ilyas_uddinali) February 8, 2023
Khe Khe Khe pic.twitter.com/HFJ46dOIlt
— Meme Farmer (@craziestlazy) February 8, 2023
Match se pihly rona shuro hogaya hy Australia ka
— 🇦🇫Hikmat Khan🇦🇫 (@HikmatK81939960) February 8, 2023
Wearing a black armband for our left handers
— CovidCowgirl🦠 (@alblen) February 8, 2023
Did concerns grow over the Gabba pitch? Do better Fox Cricket 😂
— Brian Lara Badger 🦡 (@Cricket1406) February 7, 2023
Perfect pitch and a perfect scorecard 😍
Chéaters talking about chêating😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/HiNu7B3w2i— The Boy From Mars (@TheBoyFromMars2) February 8, 2023
Similar to what was going on here pic.twitter.com/fRD2xzpjl7
— Anuj Nitin Prabhu 🏏 (@APTalksCricket) February 8, 2023
Don’t worry it won’t be a graveyard for bowlers like MCG and SCG
— Karan (@karannpatelll) February 8, 2023
