Different views on the pitch crop up

“Till date I have never taken any instruction from anyone and I have always prepared wicket keeping the traditional nature of this track in mind. This will be a bouncy wicket and preferred by those who play the cut and pull shot well. Rohit Sharma got a century in a T20 International at this ground,” Chauhan said on the eve of the match. 

Chauhan said he is confident that pitch will last five days. “At Dharamsala, we have always tried to provide result oriented wicket. Even during this season’s Ranji Trophy, the outcome was decided on fourth day lunch.”

“As usual, the trend says that the pacers will get more wickets. Ishwar Pandey of MP and Ashok Dinda of Bengal got a lot of wickets in their respective Ranji matches.” 

Chauhan said that every season they have changed the top soil in order to keep the binding intact. And despite suggestions from the curator that his pitch would offer pace and bounce, Australia opening bowler Josh Hazelwood has taken a more cynical view. 

Hazlewood claimed that India would not want to risk producing a surface any more lively than the Ranchi track that yielded more than 1,250 runs but just 16 wickets because of the fear factor that Cummins brings with his pace and aggression. 

“I’d love to see it fast and bouncy,” Hazlewood said prior to the Australians conducting their main preTest training session at the ground that is hosting its first Test match. 

“But that’s what they said in Pune as well and we didn’t quite get that. I think the way they saw Patty Cummins bowl the other day, they don’t really want it any faster than Ranchi,” Hazlewood said.