'I'm prepared for any kind of Bangalore wicket'
'South African teams are known for bouncing back and their resilience. I'm expecting the boys to be very upbeat for the second Test match'
South Africa’s batting sensation AB de Villiers, on Thursday, said he does not see anything wrong with India preparing pitches to support their spinners but warned the hosts that his team has the required skills to cope with whatever conditions they might encounter.
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After the first match in Mohali ended within three days, with India winning by 108 runs, there was a huge debate over whether Test matches should be played on pitches that offer assistance to spinners.
The Mohali pitch offered help to the spinners right from Day 1, and India’s spin troika of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra made most of the conditions, claiming 19 of the 20 wickets to lead India to an easy victory.
So, the pitch is once again the focus ahead of the second Test starting in Bangalore on Saturday with the curator expected to produce a turning track to suit India’s strength but the visitors are unfazed.
“There's absolutely nothing wrong with home teams changing the conditions to favour them and to favour their strengths. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I don't mind that. I feel we have got all the firepower to counter that. We showed signs of that in the first Test match but not for long enough. Hopefully, in this Test match we will find that rhythm, and have more endurance than the opposition,” the South African said.
However, the weather has not been ideal as far as the pitch is concerned in the run up to the second Test with Bangalore experiencing heavy showers for the last three days.
The ground-staff were unable to work on the pitch for the last three days due to rain but as soon as the weather relented on Thursday they resumed work on the 22-yard strip.
Interestingly, a huge-tent like structure was erected around the pitch, to not only protect it in case of rain but also enable the ground-staff to work on it, which was later removed.
When the covers were taken off, a greenish tinge was visible on the surface of the pitch. However, soon the grass was scraped off by the ground-staff.
One thing is for sure, that by the time the match starts, there will barely be a blade of grass on the surface and spinners can expect to get turn from Day 1, maybe in the first session itself.
Sources claim that the Indian team management had signalled the Bangalore pitch curator, K Sriram, a few days back, to prepare a turning track similar to the played on in the Mohali Test. BCCI’s chief curator for South Zone, PR Viswanathan was also asked to fly in from Chennai to assist Sriram and ensure that things went to plan.
But De Villiers revealed that the visitors have come mentally prepared to play in such conditions and expects his team to cope better in Bangalore.
“All four of the Test matches will be played in similar conditions, no matter where we play. We're expecting turning wickets wherever we go. We'll be prepared for that. We've worked really hard on our game and covered all bases. I don't think we played poorly in that first Test match; for a couple of hours we didn't play good cricket. It had nothing to do with our skills and our potential to take India on in their own conditions. I'm prepared for any kind of Bangalore wicket. We know it's going to turn,” he said.
“South African teams are known for bouncing back and their resilience. I'm expecting the boys to be very upbeat for the second Test match,” he added.
De Villiers believes the margin of defeat does not reflect the real story of the first Test in Mohali which India won by 108 runs.
“Way too much has been made of it. It has been blown out of proportion. If you look at the batting scorecard for both teams, no one has scored a hundred. I didn't really see any other player standing out that much. Both teams struggled on the pitch. Both teams struggled against spin and looked foolish at times playing spin. We came out on the losing side having not played a couple of sessions to our full potential and that cost us the game,” he said.
De Villiers pointed out that India getting 200 runs in the second innings proved crucial in the final outcome of the match.
“We could have batted better in the first innings; unfortunately we didn't. And in India's second batting innings, we let it slip by 50 to 100 runs. We could have done better with the ball in hand. That's where we lost the Test match. It's got nothing to do with the wicket. Both teams struggled against spin -- you can read the scorecard and see that,” he stated.
