Rohit Sharma hints India may request green field against Australia in Ahmedabad test

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Rohit Sharma hinted that India could apply for a green pitch for the fourth Border-Gavaskar Test in Ahmedabad if they win the third Test in Indore and seal their place in the World Test Championship final. India, currently 2-0 down in the four-Test series, need one more win to confirm their place in the WTC final, which will be played at The Oval from 7-11 June.

Australia are the other favorites to play in the final, with Sri Lanka also having a chance to be out.

India has prepared friendlier home pitches in the past, with the aim of preparing for big away tours. In the 2017-18 season, just before a tour of South Africa, they played on a greentop at Eden Gardens against Sri Lanka – the seamers took 32 of the 35 wickets that fell in the test match.
On Tuesday, Rohit said something similar could happen if India win 3-0 in Indore, setting up a potential WTC final test in pace-friendly conditions in Ahmedabad. He added, however, that the selection could be tricky as Shardul Thakur, India’s preferred all-rounder in overseas conditions, is not part of his squad for this series and has not played competitive cricket for over a month. . Rohit attended Thakur’s wedding during the break between the second and third Tests.

“There is definitely a possibility of that,” Rohit said. “We’ve already talked about this. We need to prepare the guys too.

“The important thing is Shardul Thakur because he goes into that plan for us. I don’t know how ready he is, knowing he just got married. We don’t know how many overs he’s played. But yeah, that thought process is definitely there. If we do what we do here and we get the result we want, we can think about doing something different in Ahmedabad for sure.”

In that Kolkata test against Sri Lanka, the wet weather played as important a role as the pitch in helping India simulate conditions abroad. While it should be possible for India to lay a green lawn in Ahmedabad, the weather should be hot and dry, with maximum temperatures in the mid-30s (Celsius) – nothing, in short, like London in June.

Before his thoughts can turn to such matters, however, India have a Test match to play in Indore, and Rohit warned against letting his thoughts stray too far. Although India won the second Test in Delhi by six wickets, they were required to work hard for their result – at one stage they took 139 for 7 in answer to Australia’s first innings total of 263. Rohit expected Australia to push India hard again in Indore.

“It will be a big achievement for us (to reach the WTC final) but we know we need to overcome that last hurdle, and for that we need to win the next game too, so the focus is on this Test, how can we win this game and not look too much forward because after this game we have one more test match to be played and after that there are two months of IPL”, said Rohit.

“There’s a lot of time to think about the final, but right now it’s very important for us to focus on this one and see how we can come back and win this game too, because in the last game we were under pressure. same here too, so we need to be ready for that.”

When pressed to look ahead to the WTC final, Rohit said it would be exciting for the two teams to face each other in neutral conditions.

“It’s going to be a different game for both teams actually,” he said. “I don’t really want to talk about the Test World Championship. We’re not there yet. We want to win this game and then talk about it. That will be the right thing to do.

“But speaking of that from the outside, clearly I don’t think England are going to qualify, so the two teams that are going to play in the final will be neutral teams. It’s going to be exciting. There’s no home advantage, no lead conditions. India played a lot cricket in England in recent years. Australia has played a lot of cricket (there). Sri Lanka and South Africa are also in the mix (South Africa is out of consideration). They’ve probably played a lot of cricket there too. Won’t be strange conditions for the two teams that will reach the final.It will be a good match between the two teams, whatever they are.

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