‘We don’t have any issue’ – Vikram Rathour clarifies India are fine with the pitch at Mirpur amid a report claiming their displeasure
India and Bangladesh will lock horns in the second and final Test of the series starting from Thursday in Mirpur. India are 1-0 ahead in the series after their victory in the first Test by 188 runs. Ahead of the second Test, Indian batting coach Vikram Rathour was asked several questions about the pitch in Mirpur.
According to a local reporter India head coach Rahul Dravid went to the curator’s room to have a discussion after taking a look at the pitch. When asked whether India were ‘unhappy’ with the pitch, India batting coach Rathour looked puzzled.
“You need to go and ask Mr Dravid and the curator. I don’t know what conversations happened. Whatever wicket we get we are fine with it. There are absolutely no issues from our side,” he said on Wednesday. “We still haven’t really looked at the surface. It’s kind of covered with a lot of dead grass. How will it play? It’s difficult. We need to put as many runs as possible, I can’t put a number to it. If we get to bat first, we will look to put up a big score,” Rathour said.
India would hope for a result-oriented pitch as there are World Test Championship points at stake and they need to win a majority of their remaining matches to qualify for the finals.
“We are expecting it to be a supporting wicket, whichever way it goes, we want the Test match to be decided. Both the teams are looking forward to having a good Test match. It’s definitely much better now. It used to be a pretty slow and low wicket. There used to be low-scoring games but it’s much better now. Even in ODIs, we saw it had more help for bowlers. It had more pace. I’m sure this game will get decided,” Rathour added.
When you play in the subcontinent, you expect the pitches to turn: Vikram Rathour
When asked about the Indian batters’ preparations to play the opposition spinners, Rahtour said it’s good practice for the upcoming four-match Test series at home against Australia.
“When you play in the subcontinent, you expect the pitches to turn. After this we are playing an important series against Australia and we are expecting there will be some wickets which will turn. This is good practice for our batters. We are not discussing too much tactically. It will all depend on what kind of bounce the pitch has on offer. In the previous wicket we played on, the bounce was slightly lower. We are expecting this one to maybe have more bounce and a bit more turn. We’ll see how it goes and we’ll look to play according to the conditions,” he said.
