Have asked for pitches which will help prepare for SA tour: Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has confirmed that the Indian team management has made a request to the associations hosting the matches of the current Sri Lanka series to prepare green pitches so that the Indian team can get accustomed to the kind of pitches they are going to get in South Africa.

The South African wickets offer a lot of lateral movement to the fast bowlers which is very unlike the conventional Indian pitches where the fast bowlers do not generate substantial movement once the red ball loses the shine. However, the pitch that was prepared at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata was not a conventional Indian pitch at all. It had quite a bit of greenery over it and it behaved like an overseas surface where the ball seamed and had a spongy bounce as well.

Virat hinted that the pitch at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium where the second Test is scheduled to start tomorrow would be similar to the one at Eden Gardens.

“Yes (we have asked for green pitches) because unfortunately we get only two days before we fly to South Africa after this series gets over. So we have no choice but be in the game situation and think of what’s coming ahead of us,” Virat said in the pre-match press conference in Nagpur.

Spaced out tours

The 29-year-old also stressed that the scheduling of the matches should be such that they always have a decent bit of time in hand to prepare for the overseas tours because the overseas performances of the players get noticed a lot and people form their views about the players on the basis of those performances, but nobody sees what kind of preparation they had before the tour.

“As usual cramped for time, which I think we need to assess in future as well because we very easily assess the team when we go abroad, but we don’t look at how many days we have got to prepare before going to a particular place,” Virat remarked.