The pitch for the first Test between India and Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 in Nagpur has been a significant topic of discussion in the build-up. While it seems set that hosts will dish out a rank-turner, some photos of the pitch that went viral on Tuesday have sparked a rather controversial debate.
Photos of the Nagpur pitch show the areas outside the off-stump of the left-handers have been left dry. Apart from that, the entire pitch has been rolled and watered well.
This has led to many in the Australian media, as well as experts and former cricketers, claim that India have allegedly 'doctored' the pitch to their advantage, knowing that Australia have a whole host of left-handers in their batting line-up.
While India are unlikely to have any lefties in their top six, the Australian media claimed that this was a conscious effort from the hosts to make conditions 'unfair' for the opposition.
Fans on Twitter trolled the Aussies as they felt they had begun to find excuses even before a ball was bowled. Here are some of the reactions:
Some key selection headaches for India
While the top four looks settled for the hosts, it will be interesting to see who among Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav bats at No.5. Both have been in fine form in white-ball cricket, but replacing Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer in the middle-order will certainly not be easy.
With Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin likely to start, the hosts may just tilt towards Axar Patel as their third spinner ahead of Kuldeep Yadav. Kuldeep has been sensational of late, but Axar's all-round ability could just help him make the cut.
Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Check RCB Squad 2024 Details. Follow Sportskeeda for IPL 2024 Live Score, Schedule, Points Table