IND vs ENG: Ollie Pope’s cryptic Ranchi pitch assessment: ‘One half is good, other half is…’

Unlike the last series when England were greeted with ragging turners, this time, the wickets have been kinder to batters of both sides. They have been neutral and have offered something to all departments. And now as the teams head to Ranchi with India leading the series 2-1 and pacer Jasprit Bumra rested, all eyes are once again on what kind of pitch will the curator offer.

“It’s an interesting pitch,” said Ollie Pope to reporters on Wednesday. “Won’t necessarily be belter of a wicket.”

“There are a few cracks, very platey and it was wet as well when we checked. It would dry if you keep it in the sun, looked a bit crusty, the top layer, One half is good, and the other has a lot of platey cracks,” he added.

“If it spins from ball one, it would take the pitch out of the equation too. A lot of games start with a flat pitch, it would deteriorate. That kind of gives the team batting first some advantage.” The England number three’s observation has been proven right so far in the series as the team winning the toss has won both matches thus far in the series.

Ranchi has hosted two Tests out of which India drew one against Australia in 2017 and thrashed South Africa in 2019. The wicket tended to keep low and slow in these games which is quite contrary to the pitch in Rajkot where the batters could score freely during the third Test.

“At the moment, from the far end, there is a rough outside the right-hander’s off-stump, and from this end, outside the left-hander’s off-stump.” Bowling into the rough helps the spinners get the natural variation from the pitch hence the tweakers tend to bowl around the area which tests batters’ technique. “You need to be aware of the lengths they (Indian spinner) would target,” Pope cautioned.

Pope also predicted that in the absence of Bumrah, India might be tempted to give a turner and go with four spinners in their side. “If they want to leave a bit of grass on it, or shave it off. There is every chance they would do that (shave off the grass?) especially because they have watered it. With Jasprit missing, they might go down that avenue. Probably have to wait and see.”

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