The India Cricket Team will next take on Bangladesh in the second Test in Chennai. While the Green Park Stadium is set to provide huge assistance to the spinners, the pacers too can benefit from the pitch. In fact the last time India played a Test match at the venue, the pacers went on to wreak havoc in the first innings.
India last played a Test match in Kanpur back in November of 2021 when New Zealand toured India. While the pitch worked wonders for the spinners, early on in the game, the pitch provided assistance to the seamers.
Assistance for Seamers?
India went on to score 345 runs batting first in the innings, courtesy of a century by Shreyas Iyer. But Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson went on to bag 8 wickets in the first innings of the game. Tim Southee bagged a fifer while Jamieson managed to scalp 3 wickets. Spinner Ajaz Patel got the remaining 2 wickets in the innings.
Come the time when the Kiwis came to bat, it was however the Indian spinners who spun their magic. Axar Patel bagged a fifer while Ashwin got 3 wickets and Jadeja a solitary scalp. The only pacer to get a wicket was Umesh Patel.
Interestingly, when India batted again, both Southee and Jamieson yet again bagged 3 wickets apiece to show that the even in the slow turning pitch, the seamers can get wickets. And lastly in the fourth innings, Umesh got a wicket while Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin scalped 4 and 3 wickets each.
Should India opt for a 2 pacer strategy, then only it can give the hosts a good chance to bag a couple of early wickets via the speedsters. No doubt the spinners will greatly benefit from the slow turning track, it pitch conditions are likely to favour the pacers in the opening phase of the game.
