Australia’s left-handers will face a torrid time in the opening Test against India after being stunned by a “dry”, “loose” pitch that will play into India’s hands.
Australia’s batsmen were brought to their knees by the mysterious patterns they detected in the red clay soil of the Nagpur pitch ahead of the first Test.
The team arrived at the cavernous stadium on the outskirts of the Orange city early yesterday, Steve Smith and David Warner fascinated by an apparent rough outside the left handers off stump.
Australian batsmen lean left. Warner, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Alex Carey and Matthew Renshaw — should they name him — are all mollydookers.
Warner looked particularly concerned and Smith suggested he and the others left handers have reason to be.
“It’s pretty dry,” he said. “Particularly one end. I think it will take a bit of spin, particularly the left-arm spinners spinning it back in to our left handers.
“There’s a section there that is quite dry.
“I can’t get a good gauge on it, I’m not sure, but I don’t think there will be a heap of bounce in the wicket for the seamers, it will be quite skiddy and maybe a bit of up and down movement as the game goes on.
“The cracks felt quite loose.”
KL Rahul suggested the Indians would play three spinners and there’s every reason to believe two of those will be the left arm spinners Ravi Jadeja and Axar Patel.
Visitors are always spooked by Indian pitches and hyper vigilant in their suspicions with good reason.
In the past curators have actually boasted of preparing wickets to foil, for example, Shane Warne in his bowling to Sachin Tendulkar at Chennai.
The BCCI now sends around official curators to oversee the preparation of wickets.
The Australians arrived aware that the chasing side was bowled out for 54 in the last first class match at this venue.
The traditional clay wicket combined with the unavailability of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cam Green suggests the visitors will go in with two seamers — captain Pat Cummins and Scott Boland — and two specialist spinners. Nathan Lyon is guaranteed and Ashton Agar probably has an edge given he spins it the other way.
The Indian batting line up is almost exclusively right leaning.
Wrist spinners like Mitch Swepson are rarely favoured in India and while there is a lot of noise about the 22-year-old Victorian Todd Murphy it would be a bold move to blood the veteran of just seven first class games against the best players of spin in world cricket.
Finger spinners are fashionable in India and the home team has three first class proponents in Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja and Axar Patel.
Smith is among the most successful of Australian batters to have played in the subcontinent.
His three centuries in 2017 ensured he was the highest run scorer in the series. Only Neil Harvey and Michael Clarke have reached three figures on that many occasions in India but neither did it in one series.
Smith is the only player in the squad to have scored a hundred in an India leg of the Border Gavaskar trophy (Mitchell Starc scored 99 at Mohali in 2013).
The former skipper has been at his absolute best in recent series but is not guaranteeing similar returns this time around.
“It’s hard to say until I get out into the middle I feel like I am in a really good place,” he said. “I feel like I am in a really good place, I’ve had some really good training, some long hits over the last weeks.
“I’ve been hitting the ball nicely, fingers crossed I can replicate what I did in 2017.”
Curiously, Virat Kohli has only scored a single century at home against the Australians (Chennai 2013) but he has scored six of them in Australia.
Rahul said the Indians were, like the Australians, preparing to bat on turning decks.
“The things that we’ve worked on obviously is playing spin, we know how pitches are going to be here in India and what to expect,” he said.
“Keeping that in mind, we’ve practised playing spin. Each person has their individual plans. Everybody wants to play a certain way, everyone has their own set way which has been discussed with the coaches.
“It is a must win series, with India Australia it always is. It isn’t any different to any Border Gavaskar series we’ve played, yes we do realise there is a Test Championship final that we all want to play in, but we realise we have to not think too far ahead.”
Originally published as Australia v India, first Test: Steve Smith gives worrying insight into Nagpur pitch