I’ve never seen a wicket that’s looked quite as dark as that one is: Steve Smith on Ranchi pitch

Australian captain Steve Smith, not for the first time in the on-going series, was forced to make a double take seeing the Ranchi pitch to be used for the third Test starting on Thursday.

Repeating the pre-match examination of the track that was prepared for the first match at Pune, which Steve and co. won by a thumping 333 runs, the skipper claimed he’d never before seen a Test strip of such idiosyncrasy.

“I’ve never seen a wicket that’s looked quite as dark as that one is,” Smith was quoted as saying by the Cricket Australia website.

“It looks like there’s mud sort of rolled together. It looks a bit different but having said that both teams have to play on it. It’s twenty-two yards and we’ve played on some difficult wickets in the first two games and we’ve played some pretty good cricket, so we’re confident that we can play with whatever this wicket does,” said Smith.

The 27-year-old also warned his boys that they may have to look-out for some deliveries which will stay low. “I don’t think there will be a great deal of bounce, I think it will shoot quite low,” said Smith.

He also went on to say that there will be a reasonable amount of spin once the game progresses. “And I think it will take a reasonable amount of spin as the game goes on. But I’m actually not sure how it’s going to play, it’s hard to get a gauge on this one. I daresay there won’t be much bounce but I’ve been wrong with wickets before,” quipped the Australian captain.

But if the Ranchi pitch – as foreshadowed by the tourists – plays slow and low like the Pune one, and not huge inconsistent spin and bounce as was the case in Chinnaswamy, then history from not very long ago would suggest that the pitch may work in the tourists’ favour.