A young Indian Test team under the estimable Virat Kohli won the first Test of the series against the world’s top ranked South Africa in under three days. The early result in a five-day Test would suggest the pitch was a batsmen’s nightmare. It was not and only the modern batsmen’s inability to adjust to somewhat difficult pitch conditions, be they in favour of pace, swing and seam or spin, break and turn, made it seem like a macabre contest dominated by the bowlers. Even so, it would appear that Indian cricket has not got over tampering with pitch preparation to try and beat all visiting teams. To beat all comers may be a fair enough ambition, the only problem being that the Indian Test team has invariably been a miserable flop in Tests away from Asia in the last four to five years.
If India aims to recapture the glory of the time when it was the leading Test team in the world after winning quite a few Test matches in New Zealand, Australia, England, South Africa and the West Indies, besides Asia in the last decade, it should stop under-preparing home pitches. By designing pitches to suit the spinners, Team India is doing a disservice to its batsmen, who themselves are struggling to cope with the challenges that poor wickets inevitably pose. After the win in the first Test in Mohali, It may be sorely tempting to put out more designer pitches in the next three Tests. While such a move might even see India dominate the series and win it, such devious tampering with pitches would only set back the team several years in Test cricket, which is far more of a spectacle when it is played on surfaces that allow a greater variety of cricketing skills to be displayed.
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