The condition of the outfield at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) stadium in Dharamsala is raising concerns among the teams and players. The controversy surrounding the troubled pitch gained momentum when Afghanistan’s Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman attempted a dive at to stop a boundary but the patchy and underprepared outfield caused him to jam his knee into the hard ground, leading to an awkward fall.This issue is now a major concern for Team India, who are scheduled to play against New Zealand at the same venue on October 22.
We are lucky Mujeeb hasn’t got serious injury: Trott
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott was not happy with the sandy outfield during their team’s loss against Bangladesh and said that the team is lucky that Mujeeb’s injury wasn’t serious.
“We see in cricket players being encouraged to improve their fielding but if they are afraid to dive, I mean we’re lucky Mujeeb (Ur Rahman) didn’t have a serious knee injury towards the end. We saw Devon Conway from New Zealand early on as well. Something for them to look at but I’m definitely not putting any blame on that for our loss today,” Trott said in the post-match presser.
Concerns over the Dharamsala outfield are not new. Earlier this year, the third Test between India and Australia had to be shifted to another venue due to the “lack of grass density” on the outfield in winters.
Notably, few of the India’s key players are coming out of injury. Players including Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Jasprit Bumrah, have recently recovered from injuries and the state of the Dharamsala outfield will certainly worry Rohit Sharma and Co. ahead of their New Zealand encounter.
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