London: Two days ahead of the third Test, the pitch at the iconic Lord’s sported of a fair sprinkling of grass that had everyone excited following placid surfaces in the previous two games where the batters made merry.
While the curators still have time to shave them off, it still piqued the interest because of England’s tendency to play on flat pitches to dish out their high-octane Bazball.
The last Test match here saw South Africa and Australia slug it out in a cracking World Test Championship Final a month ago where the fast bowlers called the shots on a juicy surface with 14 wickets falling each on day one and day two respectively. South Africa eventually chased down 282 for a path-breaking win but the pitch was a departure from the batting-friendly ones in England since Brendon McCullum took charge at the start of the 2022 summer.
If the curators choose to keep the grass on, then it could really test the batters from both sides who will have to make suitable technical adjustments following two run-fests. India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak felt the Lord’s wicket would be more challenging than Leeds and Birmingham.
“It seems there is a lot of green grass on the wicket than I saw in the last two matches. But tomorrow when these people will do the final cut, after that you can speak. Generally at Lord’s the scores of the first and second innings are comparatively low,” said Kotak in a press conference on Tuesday.
“The wicket will be a little more challenging. And after the last two games, if England want to give a little bit more challenging wicket, it is fair enough. So you can expect that there can be more help for the bowlers. For the batsmen, the same thing, I believe that it is a mindset. Spending time on the wicket is the best friend you can have. The more time you spend on the wicket, the more you will adjust to the wicket. So that is probably the best thing. If you don’t bat well, any wicket can be challenging.”
With a whopping 585 runs from four innings, including a career best 269 in the just-concluded second Test, which India won to level the series 1-1, Shubman Gill has led exceptionally from the front in his maiden tour as captain. He has hardly put a foot wrong, unleashing a different dimension to his batting that has become the talk of the town.
Kotak said subtle technical changes and a strong mental fortitude are what have made him almost unbeatable in the series so far. “I don’t think anything has changed because he is the captain. There is no change in his mindset from when I saw him in Australia or in India. He has made a few technical changes, which every batsman does.
“I feel there’s a change in his mind purely as a batsman. He wants to give himself a little time, stay at the wicket.”