Australia’s batters might be confronted by a triple assault of spin after glancing on the pitch in Nagpur forward of the primary Test towards India.
The predominantly left-handed batting line-up was greeted to a dry wicket, with a tinge of inexperienced, after they arrived at VCA Stadium on Tuesday for coaching.
Veteran opener David Warner appeared involved by a tough patch outdoors the off stump for left handers.
Star Australia batter Steve Smith admitted he couldn’t get a “good gauge” on the pitch.
“Pretty dry, particularly one end,” Smith stated on Tuesday.
“I think it’ll take a bit of spin, particularly the left-arm spin, and spinning it back into our left-handers.
“There’s a bit there that is fairly dry.
“I don’t think there’ll be a heap of bounce in the wicket and I think it’ll be quite skiddy for the seamers, and maybe a bit of up and down movement as the game goes on.
“The cracks felt fairly free.”
India vice-captain KL Rahul said his team would give serious consideration to playing three spinners, with two of them likely to be left-handed duo Ravi Jadeja and Axar Patel.
Australia have already been preparing to face prolific right-arm spinner Ravichandran Ashwin by bringing in a “duplicate” bowler during their pre-series training camp in Bangalore.
“There will probably be a temptation to play three spinners as a result of we’re enjoying in India,” Rahul stated on Tuesday.
“There’s no shock that the pitches are going to spin however we’ll make that decision on the day earlier than (Wednesday) the sport.”
The pitch was under cover for most of Australia’s time at the stadium but the curator and ground staff got to work during the afternoon when India trained.
India’s insistence on spin-friendly circumstances backfired throughout Australia’s final tour in 2017, when left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe ran by the hosts with 12-70 to arrange a 333-run win within the opening Test in Pune.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
