England captain Ben Stokes has given an unusual reaction to the pitch at the JSCA international stadium in Ranchi ahead of the 4th Test, calling the surface as “interesting,” before highlighting its looks.
Ranchi will host the 4th Test, starting Friday. And while the surface here in the last two Tests have been good for batting on the first two days and have assisted the pacers equally to the spinners, a raging turner is expected for this game. Why? Because India will be missing Jasprit Bumrah, their best bowler of the series who has been rested from this Test.
Ben Stokes assessed the pitch on Wednesday evening and gave a shocking reaction.
The England captain said, “It looked interesting, didn’t it? I don’t know. I can’t say much.”
I’ve never seen something like that before: Ben Stokes
He added that he had never seen any pitch like this one before.
Ben Stokes said, “I don’t know, I’ve never seen something like that before so I have got no idea,” Stokes said, when asked on how it might play. “I don’t know what could happen.
“If you looked down one side of opposite ends it just looked different to what I am used to seeing, especially out in India. It looked green and grassy up in the changing-rooms, but then you go out there, it looked different. Very dark and crumbly and quite a few cracks in it.”
Ollie Pope, England’s vice-captain, agreed with his captain that the pitch has plenty of cracks, and called it a “platey” one.
“It doesn’t necessarily look like a belting wicket at the moment,” Pope said.
The pitches in the first three Tests were good for batting. But with Bumrah absent, India are likely to dish out a spin-friendly surface, though that could backfire on the hosts, Pope feels.
Pope added, “It takes the toss a little bit out of it as well. If it does spin from ball one I guess it’s an even playing field. If it does a fair bit like we expect it to, having looked at it today, it definitely brings us into the game.
Ben Stokes is set to bring in Ollie Robinson for Mark Wood. They are likely to make another change, replacing James Anderson with either Shoaib Bashir or Dan Lawrence.
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