TERRIBLE ADVERITSMENT FOR TEST CRICKET

If test cricket was to be eradicated then the pitch at Nagpur for the 4^th test between India and England, would make an ideal advertisement.  

Not only is it dull but it deviates from all the principles of worthy test match pitch. Ideally, the basics the pitch should have bounce, pace and turn. The pace and bounce tend to disintegrate over duration of the match while the turn becomes prominent.  With all the geographic factors, if we get even one of these basics right then test cricket can still be attractive. Unfortunately, the Nagpur pitch offered none of the basics which would have made most spectators yawn and flick to other channels.

Experts and viewers are quick to criticise a pitch if it favours the bowlers or as it is often the case batsmen and rightly they should, but even watching runs flows still attracts more views rather a barrage of monotonous defensive prods. 

The statistics from Day 1 yesterday showed there were 97 over’s bowled yesterday out of which 80.3 over’s no runs were scored off.  One could argue this was a case because of the defensive field sets, defensive bowling and defensive batting but realistically it was nature of the pitch.

To keep it simple cricket is about batsmen scoring runs and bowlers taking wickets. The pitch in Nagpur, contradicts both the basics of cricket.  Scoring runs is so difficult due to the nature of pitch even the most attacking batsmen are content to defend even harmless deliveries.   When one of the most captivating batsmen in world cricket, Kevin Pietersen manages to score at a scoring rate of 38.82, it confirms the lifeless wicket is appalling for test cricket.

The only way to get a wicket on this wicket is either boring the batsmen out or wait for him to make a mistake. To sum it up, it doesn’t reward the batsmen or the bowlers and more importantly the spectators watching at the ground or on TV.

The pitch could still produce a result over five days and the criticism will vanish but that would take some dreadful cricket or the pitch to deteriorate at an alarming rate. If the latter does take effect one then has to wonder why we weren’t given a dust bowl from Day 1, at least the wickets tumbling would have made it attractive cricket.