Pujara not bothered by challenges of Pink-ball Test, defends Chepauk pitch as 'not dangerous'

The stories around the ongoing Test series between India and England have been dominated by the quality and nature of of the pitches used so far in the two Tests, and there is no end to the talks surrounding the 22-yards as the pitch for the third Test at Motera remains under widespread scrutiny.

India’s number three, Cheteshwar Pujara who had to come quickly to see what the two surfaces offered to bowlers and batsmen in the first two Tests was presented with the challenge of predicting what the pitch in the third Test would look like. 

To add to the complexity of the situation, the third Test will be a pink-ball affair and hence groundsmen will have their task cut out in order to balance the assistance between bowlers and batsmen as the piano ball by nature goes soft very quickly compared to the red balls.

In Pujara’s eyes, the pitch at the Motera appears to be a ‘decent’ pitch, but he also urged cautions against reading too much into it given there is enough time left before the first ball will be bowled on the surface. He also outlined the unpredictability of the behaviour of the pink ball and said that it can throw up challenges complete unseen and unexpected before the start of the game.

"We have three-four days and a lot could change. It looks a decent pitch but it's difficult to predict anything, considering we're playing with a pink ball. With the red ball, it'd be a different ball game, but with the pink ball, it's difficult to assess. You expect something, but it could turn out to be something else. I want to just try and keep things simple and not worry too much about the pitch,” Pujara said in a virtual press conference.

The winter in the Western part of India where the Sardar Patel Stadium is located will mean that there will be an onset of due and Pujara said that he too expects the due to bring some effect on the game. However, he said that the extent of its effect is still unknown, but most likely will be limited to the third session of the day’s play. 

"Yes, there may be dew. Looking at the weather, there's a possibility of dew in the final session. The guys have played a lot of cricket with the white ball here, and the bowlers are used to it. As batters, we've played with the pink ball. It could in the third session, although how much we don't know yet. We will have a better idea, but we are expecting dew,” Pujara added.

Team India has had completely contrasting fortunes in the only two day-night fixture they have been part of as their lowest total in Tests came in a similar affair against Australia in December 2020. Before that, in their first pink ball game against Bangladesh at home, India steamrolled Bangladesh on the back of a strong pace-attack as spinners did not take even a single wicket at the Eden Gardens.

Pujara said that the team will not improve playing with pink-ball by playing one-off Test, but at the same time suggested India will not be compelled to change their tactics going into the third Test against England. On the point of humiliation in Adelaide, Pujara downplayed the collapse as an aftereffect of one terrible session where balls were swinging, otherwise, the team was in commanding position till the end of the first innings fo both sides.

"I've played so many Tests but with the pink ball, even I don't have enough experience. I don't think it matters a lot when you play one-off pink-ball Tests, we will get used to it as we keep playing more. We'll have to just play normal cricket, have similar game plans as we had in the previous Test match, depending on the pitch. We'll just stick to that. In Adelaide, the ball was swinging around and we had one bad session of poor batting that led to that disaster, but overall if you look at the first innings, we were in a dominating position."

Pujara also came strongly in defence of the pitch at Chepauk which attracted severe criticism from pundits, especially from England. He said that batsmen find it tougher to score when pitches like at the Chepauk provide assistance to spinners, but Indian batsmen combat similar challenges when they go overseas and face seamers on pitches that have live grass on them and provide a lot of seam movement. 

He conceded that batting was difficult on the Chepauk pitch in the second innings but said that pitches in Australia have cracks as well that deviate balls to awkward positions for batsmen and he hoped the English batsmen will find a way as they will get accustomed to it.

"Sometimes, if you're playing on a turner, you find it difficult, but it wasn't a dangerous pitch at all," he said. "When the ball spins, people find it difficult to score runs. When we go overseas, we also play on seaming tracks where games finish in three or four days. We still have to play on pitches with grass and seam movement. When it comes to turning tracks, you can't define how much it should turn. There's a thin line, but I don't think it was a bad pitch,” Pujara said.

“Yes, it always becomes difficult in the second innings, but even when we play in Australia on fourth or fifth-day tracks, balls can hit the cracks and take off. As a team, I don't think we had an issue, am sure England once they're used to it and play more matches, they'll also figure out a way."

Pujara batted brilliantly in the Test series against Australia and was batting with great touch to look good for a hundred that has eluded him for than two years now in the first innings of the first Test against England before he got out on one of the most unfortunate ways of getting dismissed in cricket. Pujara played the talks around his lack of hundred down to the attributes of batting that are under his control and hoped that the three-figure mark is not that far away for him in Tests.

"The way I am batting, although the three-figures haven't come, I am hoping it won't' be too far away. As a batsman, what is in my control - my practice, preparation, process - it's been wonderful. I'm confident of getting a big score very soon."

The third Test between India and England is scheduled to start on February 24 at Motera in Ahmedabad. India are contemplating the decision of bringing an extra seamer in place of the third spinner which may well be Kuldeep Yadav while the tourists are banking on the pink-ball to negate the extra amount of spin from the Indian spinners and extract some swing in the air for their pacers, especially James Anderson who is destined to come back after a widely controversial rest in the second Test.