Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels Captain Virat Kohli and Chief Coach Anil Kumble have got a chance to usher in a new era where Indian cricket teams will not require “rank turners” to win matches, as the long-used tactic is beginning to boomerang on the side. With India starting their long home season of 13 Tests with a three-match series against New Zealand, the ‘Turbanator’ opined that designer pitches could backfire on the team.
Over the past four-five years, the previous team managements preferred pitches where Test matches would end inside three days. But I believe both Anil bhai and Virat are positive people, who would like play on good Test pitches, where the results are decided on thefourth evening or by the fifth day’s post-lunch session.Harbhajan Singh
“We should look at the bigger picture. Are we gaining anything by winning inside two and a half to three days? Are we also being fair to our batsmen who struggled against South African spinners during the last home series?”
India’s third-highest wicket-taker asked some serious questions. “Why do we call it Test cricket? Because it tests your skill from Day 1 to Day 5 at every level. It should give everyone a fair chance to succeed at that level. “Save the last Test match at Kotla, where Ajinkya (Rahane) batted exceptionally and Virat got runs, our batsmen also suffered. I can tell you if we go for rank turners, it can boomerang on us like the World T20 in Nagpur. Mitch Santner and Ish Sodhi could prove to be a handful.”
But if we can produce sporting pitch where our batsmen can score 400 runs if batting first, New Zealand can’t beat us. Man to man, we are a better unit. Even if we prepare sporting tracks, we can win 3-0.
For Harbhajan, rank turners are of no good use to Indian spinners either. “Fine, you can get wickets, but there are times when the bowler doesn’t even know where the ball will land and which direction it goes. You don’t know which one would turn and which one would jump. That’s why I am stressing on good pitches, where skill comes into play,” said the owner of 700-plus international wickets across three formats.
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