The press box here is modelled on the spaceship at Lord’s. The wickets in the nets, 12 turf and two artificial, would satisfy the standards set by the MCC’s head groundsman, Mick Hunt, at the Nursery End but thereafter the parallels fade a little.
Look out of the back of the media centre and there are no black taxis or red buses because there are no roads. Instead a couple of oxen pull a cart for some labourers tilling by hand in the scrubland.
We are at least 15km outside the city of Rajkot, where Ravindra Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara were raised. Stare at the square and it is hard to tell which of these players the surface will suit. Pujara’s primary concern is runs; Jadeja, despite being a triple centurion in first-class cricket, is here to take wickets.
The stadium built in 2009 is a symmetrical bowl. The outfield is a consistent green, which means reverse swing may be tough to find. The ubiquitous bucket seats in the stands are clean. We wait to see how many of them will be filled. It is a long walk – about two hours – from the city centre and your correspondent has yet to check out the regularity of the bus service. The hope is this will not be an Antigua-style white elephant that in a few years becomes a curiosity for goatherds.
In the city there is excitement and pride at the prospect of Rajkot’s first Test match. At the England team hotel the inside of the lifts have been redecorated with life-size action shots of Ben Stokes, Zafar Ansari and Ben Duckett. At the ground everything is ready, which in many parts of the globe is not always the case two days before the start of a Test.
The pitch attracts attention and the usual caveats – never draw any conclusions two days before the match. It is not like the ones that greeted England in Chittagong or Dhaka. Some green grass is visible alongside some cracks; there are one or two bare patches, which suggests the surface is not entirely flat.
On Monday it was unprotected from an unrelenting sun unlike in Bangladesh, left open to bake a bit more. After England had finished their practice a little army of groundspersons – all women – could be seen kneeling on the strip, wire brushes in hand and they were scrubbing away eagerly. That live grass may yet disappear.
The pitch will offer turn for the spinners – but we are not sure when – however, the expectation is that batting will not be as treacherous early in the game as it was in Bangladesh.
With such an even covering of grass everywhere reverse swing may not be so easy to find especially since the Kookaburra ball will not be in use as it was in Bangladesh. As Stuart Broad confirmed the Kookaburra tends to reverse earlier in its life. The SG ball, which will be used in this series, has properties more similar to the English Duke. All we know for certain is that it will be a good toss to win.
If England were playing on a pitch like those in the nets, then they may well opt for four seamers and two spinners. There is just enough live grass on the strip in the middle for them to consider playing that formation for the first time this winter, but the three-and-three lineup is still the most likely. Which three spinners should be in the team continues to cause debate, certainly beyond the squad and probably within it.
One of the off-spinners on view in the nets exhibited fine control and subtle variation but that was Kamlesh Makvana, who has taken 212 wickets in 78 first-class games for Saurashtra at a lower cost than any of England’s spinners (and he is six years younger than Gareth Batty). He is the son of the groundsman and a high-quality addition to the battalion of net bowlers.
My hunch is England will revert to the trio who played in the Test in Chittagong, which would mean Batty and Adil Rashid alongside Moeen Ali despite the proliferation of India right-handers. This might be allied to a startling recall for Jos Buttler in an unfamiliar role.
What is far more certain is England begin the first of five Tests as underdogs. They have defeated India in their past three series, the pinnacle being victory here four years ago, but that is countered by India’s recent run of form on their own soil under an increasingly confident new captain.
Virat Kohli and the coach, Anil Kumble, have one or two selectorial conundrums, triggered by the injury to Rohit Sharma, but their agonising about their best team will not be anywhere near as prolonged as England’s.
