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India have been accused of micromanaging pitch conditions for their World Cup campaign, including switching surfaces for Wednesday\u2019s semi-final against New Zealand in Mumbai and Sunday\u2019s final should Rohit Sharma\u2019s team qualify.<\/p>\n
Maintaining a recent pattern of seeking the ideal surfaces for their trio of elite spin bowlers Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin, India\u2019s team management have reportedly changed the surface for tonight\u2019s game to a slower, lower strip that will make life more difficult for New Zealand\u2019s high-quality seam bowlers.<\/p>\n
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Steve Smith is bowled by Ravindra Jadeja in Chennai.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n While initially the match was to be played on the Wankhede Stadium\u2019s pitch six, a fresh surface unused during the tournament to date, this has now been swapped for pitch seven, a strip already used for two matches.<\/p>\n An email from the International Cricket Council\u2019s independent pitch consultant Andy Atkinson, who oversees preparation at global tournaments to ensure they provide an equitable playing surface, has raised doubts about the neutrality of the pitch for the final.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of these actions, one must speculate if this will be the first ever ICC CWC [World Cup] final to have a pitch which has been specifically chosen and prepared to their stipulation at the request of the team management and\/or the hierarchy of the home nation board,\u201d Atkinson wrote in an email published by The Daily Mail<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cOr will it be selected or prepared without favouritism for either of the sides competing in the match in the usual manner, and unquestionably because it is the usual pitch for the occasion?\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday in Mumbai, India\u2019s coach Rahul Dravid, accompanied by other support staff, travelled straight from the airport to Wankhede Stadium for a long and animated discussion with the venue\u2019s ground staff about the surface.<\/p>\n Having not won a World Cup in either white-ball format since 2011, also on home soil, India have been desperate to do so this time, and marched undefeated through the qualifying matches.<\/p>\n But the pitches they have played on have often appeared to be balanced well and truly in India\u2019s favour, unlike the 2019 World Cup where England forged through to win despite the preparation of surfaces that offered more to seam and swing and thus blunted the batting strength of Eoin Morgan\u2019s team.<\/p>\n Australian players for India\u2019s opening game in Chennai saw similarities between that pitch and those prepared for the Test series in February and March, where India went 2-0 up on slow turners in Nagpur and Delhi before being spun out themselves in little more than two days on an even more extreme pitch in Indore.<\/p>\n At the time, India\u2019s batting coach Vikram Rathour admitted that the team had felt pressure to qualify for the world Test championship final \u2013 where they were soundly beaten by Australia on a neutral surface at the Oval \u2013 and requested pitches to help them accordingly.<\/p>\n Rohit Sharma inspects the pitch at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai at a training session this week.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cSince this ICC Test championship has started there\u2019s just more pressure on you to win home games,\u201d he said when asked whether neutral curators should be appointed for Test series. \u201cWe want to win games when we\u2019re playing at home, but that\u2019s a call the ICC need to take.\u201d<\/p>\n Ironically, India\u2019s campaign has been dominated by the high-quality work of their seam bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj, who have proven themselves repeatedly as capable in all conditions.<\/p>\n But this time a year ago, when India were beaten by England in a T20 World Cup semi-final in Adelaide, Dravid said it was a challenge for his players to learn how to play white-ball cricket on foreign shores given they were banned from playing for franchises outside the Indian Premier League.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ICC independent pitch consultant works with the host and venues on their proposed pitch allocations,\u201d an ICC spokesperson said, \u201cand this process is ongoing throughout an event of this length and nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n