Green is not always soothing to the eye, not if it is the colour of the pitch and you are the Indian team on an away assignment in New Zealand.
The Hagley Oval in Christchurch looked a sea of green ahead of the second India-New Zealand Test, which begins Saturday, with the wicket and the outfield overlapping into each other because of the similarity in their colours.
That wouldn’t be good news for Virat Kohli’s India, who batted poorly in the first Test in Wellington to go down 0-1 in the two-match series. With Ishant Sharma uncertain because of a recurrence of his ankle injury, bad became worse for the visitors.
India head coach Ravi Shastri, however, believes that the Wellington “shake-up” will help his boys approach the second Test with an “open mind”.
“I always believe when you are on a run like we were, a shake-up like that (10-wicket loss in the first Test) is good because it opens your mindset. When you are on the road winning all the time and you haven’t tasted defeat, you can have a closed or fixed mindset,” Shastri said at the pre-match media conference.
“These are opportunities to learn. You know what strategies NZ are employing and now you are prepared. I am sure the boys are up for the challenge,” a confident Shastri insisted.
While Shastri talked about India being better prepared, New Zealand pacer Trent Boult was excited with the Hagley Oval wicket and the conditions, hoping to bowl better than what he did in Wellington.
“It’s probably better (bowling at Hagley Oval than at Basin Reserve). The Basin generally turns into a very nice batting surface. Here it’s a slightly different story. You are not battling the wind first of all. The overheads are there and it’s generally a nice place to pitch the ball up and get it swinging around.
“It’s pretty exciting. Traditionally, you come down here, you normally see a bit of grass. From my point of view, I will be happy to see it stays like that and the ball moving around,” Boult said.
India are still on top of the World Test Championship points table and Shastri feels that there shouldn’t be any panic after just one defeat.
“...we played eight games and won seven. For one loss, there is absolutely no need to panic. And neither is anyone looking in that direction in this team,” he asserted.
Shastri explained the rationale behind Rishabh Pant being preferred over Wriddhiman Saha. “When you come to New Zealand, there is not much of spin bowling. Emphasis is on fast bowling and then the batting becomes a key factor. Plus Pant is a left-hander, and an aggressive batsman lower down the order… That tilted the scales in his favour.”
When asked why is it that teams struggle away from home, Shastri replied: “It’s the red ball. The conditions of red and white-ball formats are completely different... The conditions for red-ball cricket are totally different, especially in England and New Zealand,” he analysed.
Will the red ball on a lively green pitch spell India’s doom once again? The answer might be clear after the first day’s play itself.
