The pitch at the Narendra Modi stadium has been a piece of intrigue ahead of the first Test. The strip which had plenty of grass cover on Tuesday, was under covers for the most of Wednesday, prompting both Shubman Gill and India’s support staff to have a long look at the conclusion of their training session. Even West Indies captain Roston Chase wanted to see how the strip will look come Thursday as Indian captain Shubman Gill revealed what to expect in terms of the pitches at home going forward.
“I can’t speak about the conversations before I came, but we would be looking to play on wickets that offer something to both the batsmen and to the bowlers. But, having said that, any team that comes to India, the challenge is the spin and reverse swing. These are the two things that, if teams can play spin well and if they can challenge the reverse swing, they are going to get good success. So keeping these challenges in mind, you’d be looking to play on wickets that offer [something] to the batsmen and the bowlers,” Gill said.
A bit of background is in order. Between 2013 to 2024, when India remained unbeaten on home soil, under two different captains and three head coaches, their gameplan for home Tests was all about maximising the strength of their spinners. At times, with World Test Championship points up for grabs, rank-turners had become the norm, which had a significant effect in the career averages of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma.
Towards the end of Rahul Dravid’s reign, India moved towards traditional Indian slow decks which deteriorated as the Test progressed, but through all of it Ahmedabad – a venue they have frequented the most in recent years has been a strip that is hard to decode. Against England in 2021, it offered two contrasting spin decks – one that resulted in a two-day Test and another turner with low bounce. Then for the Test against Australia, it offered one of the lifeless ones seen in recent years as it offered a rare draw.
For the Test against West Indies, a red-soil pitch has been rolled out, which indicates good bounce on offer. There is reason for Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir to be optimistic about why this plan could well become their theme going forward. Gambhir, during his playing years, largely played on what were traditional Indian decks that started flat before the spinners came into picture from Day 4 onwards. A venue like Ahmedabad has also offered plenty of support for the pacers in the first session with Dale Steyn famously scripting a famous win in 2008 and Sri Lanka’s pacers nearly repeating it a year later. But having found considerable success in flat decks during the recent tour of England, Gill didn’t shy away from revealing what their template will be at home.
“We are looking to play some hard, grinding cricket. Over the past few years, if you see the Test matches, they haven’t got to five days. So what we are looking to do is play some good, hard cricket. All the Test matches that we played in England went pretty deep [all five went into the fifth day]. And I think what you can expect from us is good, hard, grinding cricket and we won’t be looking for any easy options. And I think we have the skills to dominate in any kind of situation and the kind of talent we have got in the team, we can turn around from any situation, so that’s what we will be looking to play,” Gill said.
The intrigue around the pitch means, India are still not sure of the combination that would take the field on Thursday as they have four all-rounders to choose from. It is understood that India have three options that are lying ahead of them. One involves, playing five frontline batsmen, a wicketkeeper, three spinners and two pacers as it would give them enough batting depth and bowling options. If there is still grass on Thursday morning, the plan is to then draft Nitish Kumar Reddy as the seam-bowling all-rounder. If that’s the case, then whether he comes in place of a third spinner or they sacrifice a specialist batsman is what the think-tank will ponder over Wednesday night. There is also the extreme possibility of India playing all four all-rounders — a variety that Gambhir is a huge fan of — but, in that case Kuldeep Yadav could miss out.
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Adding to the complexity is the weather in Ahmedabad, where Day 1 and 5 has forecast of shower with gloomy conditions being the norm in the remaining three days. “We have such quality in our team. Someone like Kuldeep, such a wicket-taker for us in all formats, didn’t get a chance to play in England, which was very unfortunate. Here, I think, playing four spinners, and spinners of such quality, you are always tempted to look at the batting depth, you have to just weigh in your options, what can give you a bit more,” Gill said.
