On Sourav Ganguly's viral 'India doesn’t need rank-turners' post, head coach Dravid blunt take
The head coach of team India, Rahul Dravid, made a frank admission in the recently-raised pitch conversation by former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly amid Jasprit Bumrah's haul of nine wickets in the second Test match against England in Visakhapatnam. He said that the team management never asks for rank-turners while playing at home in a bid to hold an advantage over visiting teams.
Ganguly had tweeted: “When I see Bumrah Sami Siraj Mukesh bowl, I wonder why we need to prepare turning tracks in India. My conviction of playing on good wickets keeps getting stronger every game. They will get 20 wickets on any surface with Ashwin Jadeja Kuldeep and Axar..battin quality dropping because of pitches in the last 6 to 7 years at home..good wickets are a must.. India will still win over 5 days..@bcci.”
On Monday, after the 106-run victory of India against England, where Bumrah was named the Player of the Match, Dravid was asked if more pitches like Vizag could be seen in the remaining three Tests of the series.
Dravid said, “Curators make the pitches. We don’t ask for rank-turners. Obviously, tracks in India would spin—how much they’ll spin, how little they’ll spin, how much. I’m not an expert; obviously, wickets in India in the course of four or five days do turn, but how much are they going to turn? I sometimes get told they’ll turn on the third day, but they turn on the first day. Sometimes I get told they’ll turn on the second day, and they don’t turn till day four.”
“So I’m sometimes as clueless as anybody else. We look at the wicket, and we try to do the best we can with what we get. We go to Rajkot; we’ll see what we can get and play with whatever we get in front of.”