Lucknow's pitch curator sacked after creating 'unplayable' track

New Zealand (Source: AP Newsroom)

In what was an extremely low-scoring affair between India and New Zealand at Lucknow's Ekana stadium where both sides barely manage to touch the 100-run mark in a T20I match. The pitch received heavy criticism from all quarters with skipper Hardik Pandya calling it a "shocker of the wicket" after the game.

The ball was turning square making it unfair for the batters to score runs on a challenging wicket as no six was hit during the match. Many experts including the mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants franchise Gautam Gambhir expressed his disappointment over the track, jokingly saying that South African opener Quinton de Kock might not return after watching this much spin.

Now, the biggest development coming in is that the pitch curator has been removed with immediate effect by the BCCI as the next season of the IPL is barely a few months away and the board might not want to risk it any further.

Previously, the bowling coach of the Indian team Paras Mhambrey commented on the pitch mentioning that the 'curator' is the right person who knows about the pitch rather than him. 

“The curator is the right person to answer that question (on pitch). But definitely we knew it would be a big challenge and luckily we controlled the game. Anything in the range of 120-130 would have been really challenging. We did well to restrict them to 99 and it was an achievable target.

"When we saw the wicket, we realised it was on the drier side. There was a little grass covering on the middle, but there was none on both ends. When we came yesterday, it looked like it would turn and we realised it would be challenging."

It remains to be seen if BCCI decides to work on the pitch. Meanwhile, India will be playing New Zealand in the 3rd T20I on 1st February in Ahmedabad.

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