The conundrum of Ranji pitches; has the BCCI got it all wrong again?

The conundrum of Ranji pitches; has the BCCI got it all wrong again?: The pitch conundrum doesn’t seem to be abating. Pitches for Test matches in India are prepared by keeping the home team’s strength, i.e. spin, in mind while giving little thought to what would happen when the national team tours abroad. Invariably, we court embarrassment on fast and bouncy pitches overseas.

Ever since India’s twin whitewashes in four-Test series in England and Australia in 2011-12, the BCCI has instructed curators across the country to prepare seamer-friendly wickets. This has resulted in Ranji league games being either played on greentops or flat decks, both of which have little help for spinners.

The BCCI’s initiative to prepare seamer-friendly pitches has given “fake confidence” to medium-pacers and has taken spinners out of the game. The issue is not with leaving grass on the wicket but it should not be as much grass where even a 120 kph bowler appears to be a Malcomm Marshall. It is fine if the pitch makes him look 125 but he shouldn’t appear unplayable. Some of these pacers are picking up around 50 wickets in a season and the selectors can’t ignore them either. But when such a bowler is picked for international cricket, he gets exposed while bowling on a slightly drier surface.

There should be help for the bowlers but if a batsman applies himself he should also be able to score. And on the fourth-fifth days, spinners should come into play. The wicket should offer help to the quciks on the first morning but it shouldn’t get bowlers into a mindset of ‘Wow, we have won the toss, we can wrap things up and we win the match’. The ball keeps on moving because there is so much moisture below the wicket. The moment a spinner comes on to bowl, batsmen count it as an opportunity to make runs. There is no challenge. Lack of spin and bounce also hurts their cause.

A spinner who takes wickets only on rank turners isn’t showcasing his skills but simply using the pitch to his advantage. Similarly any seamer who can swing the ball a bit and bowls a good line and length will do well on such tops. But to make it challenging, you have to make the conditions ‘even’ just like it happens in the ideal version of Test cricket.

India’s spin resources have appeared increasingly stingless since Kumble retired with 619 wickets in 2008. The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have failed to deliver on overseas tours of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and England.

The push for pace-oriented tracks has also affected the Indian batsmen and their skills against top quality spinners. While India faltered against Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann in the home Test series against England in 2012-13, part-timer off spinner Moeen Ali proved difficult to tackle in the away series in England in 2014. Nathan Lyon ran through India’s line-up on a turning pitch at the Adelaide.

It is equally concerning that our batsmen are getting virtually no practice against quality spin bowling. Going forward that could well hurt India as it did in the home series in 2012. India were being touted to whitewash the English side but Panesar and Swann had different ideas and spun a web around the so called specialist spin players the Indian batting greats. That series also highlighted that the techniques of our batsmen against spinners on real turning tracks are not water tight as it is popularly suggested.

The statistics relating to the pitches prepared for the Ranji Trophy are revealing. In the 2013 season out of the 38 bowlers who captured 25 or more wickets, 28 were speedsters and only 10, spinners. Vinay Kumar and Shardul Thakur were the joint leading wicket takers in the 2014 season with 48 wickets to their name. A single spinner in the top 10 wicket takers last season is alarming to say the least. India is also struggling to find a potent Test spinner when playing overseas. If Ravindra Jadeja is your spinner when you play in South Africa and New Zealand, all cannot be right with the Indian think tank. R Ashwin has done nothing off note despite being to two full test tours down under.

If India wants to improve their bowling arsenal, sporting pitches is the need of the hour, not surfaces laden with grass, where ordinary bowlers suddenly begin to pose a lot of threat. A wicket which is true, supports the faster bowlers on day one and two, grows into a batsmen friendly surface on day three, gradually starts turning on day four and favors the slower bowlers on day five. This will in all ways raise the standard of the game as well as extract results out of test matches otherwise either ending inside 3 days or stretching for a draw.