England vs India: 2nd Test - Deceptive 'green' pitch at Lord's offers little encouragement after Trent Bridge debacle

England captain Alastair Cook and coach Peter Moores inspect the pitch at Lord’s

After a flat deathbed for bowlers at Trent Bridge, all eyes are at the 22 yards at Lord’s, trying to decipher what the ‘home of cricket’ may offer to the tired and deflated bowling attacks of India and England in the 2nd Test starting Thursday.

Lord’s groundsman Mick Hunt is the man in focus after his counterpart at Trent Bridge had earlier apologised for preparing a flat track for the first Test. At first look on Tuesday, the track offered a greenish look, instead of the brown pitch at Nottingham, but looks can be deceptive.

Ex England skipper and commentator Michael Vaughan tweeted a picture of the square:

Courtesy of @JohnSunCricket .... Looks a little more like English conditions !! pic.twitter.com/NQqo3uDHKG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) July 15, 2014

But pacer Stuart Broad wasn’t too excited by the looks, saying the pitch looked similar 2 days before the 1st Test at Lord’s against Sri Lanka last month.

@MichaelVaughan @JohnSunCricket Looked like that 2 days out before Sri Lanka test. The key is Thursday morning

— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) July 15, 2014

In that Test, Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews sent England in to bat first, encouraged by the green look of the surface. However, despite some early blows, England recovered from 22/2 and 74/3 to post 575/9 on board, fuelled by Joe Root’s maiden double century. As the match went on, the pitch flattened out and became easier for batting. Sri Lanka posted 453 in their first innings, followed by England declaring their second innings at 267/8.

Rangana Herath, the Sri Lankan left-arm spinner, took 4 wickets in 2nd innings as the pitch began to offer some turn later in the match. Though Indian skipper MS Dhoni said he didn’t regret the non-selection of Ravichandran Ashwin in the first Test, it’ll be interesting to see if he trusts in Jadeja’s ability to get the most out of this track in the later stages. The left-arm all-rounder went wicketless in the sole innings at Trent Bridge.

Against Sri Lanka, England pacers had to bowl out of their skins to get the match close on the last day, and Sri Lanka were barely able to save the match after a James Anderson marathon effort on the final day. “I can't praise the lads enough, it was a flat wicket, we wanted to wait for the ball to reverse swing and Jimmy produced a fantastic spell,” Cook had praised his bowlers’ effort on the deck.

Binny set to play

Stuart Binny in action during the first Test at Trent Bridge

Karnataka all-rounder Stuart Binny, after making his debut in the drawn first Test at Trent Bridge, is most likely to keep his place for the 2nd Test at Lord’s.

If Binny’s batting position of No.8 in the Indian nets ahead of Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir is anything to suggest, the 30-year-old will make the playing XI despite several reknowned former players and critics questioning his selection in the first match.

Reserve opener Gambhir and middle order batsman Rohit, only got their chances in the nets after the Indian batting order that played the first Test completed their turns. However, Ravichandran Ashwin, who was benched for Ravindra Jadeja rolled his arm over in the later in the day along with part-timer Rohit.

Binny was used for only 10 overs in the drawn encounter and MS Dhoni after the first Test suggested that there was hardly any life on the pitch to use the fourth seamer. The skipper even suggested the all-rounder might come in handy on more lively pitches. Though the green on the Lord’s pitch two days ahead of the match may not be as encouraging as it looks, it looks unlikely from nets practice that Ravichandran Ashwin may get a look in for Binny.

To boost his chances, Binny with his confident stroke filled knock of 78, batted India to safety on day 5 when England bowlers sniffed an outside chance for a victory after accounting for three Indian wickets in the morning session.

Second match of the five Test series beings on Thursday.