IPL 2023 | Lucknow's Ekana Pitch Comes Under Fire
Ekana pitch has come under scrutiny [Twitter]
The pitch at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium came under intense scrutiny following the conclusion of the last two IPL games where teams failed to breach the 130-run mark. The slow and sluggish nature of the wicket has made batting painfully hard, potentially impacting the popularity of the shortest format of the game.
The pitch also saw some sharp turn early on in the innings most notably the one bowled by Jadeja which alarmingly turned a long way to castle Marcus Stoinis's off stump.
Although this venue has seen some low scoring thrillers in the past few games, this is certainly not in the best interest of the game. The dodgy nature of the pitch first came to light when India played against New Zealand in January earlier this year. New Zealand barely managed to score 100 runs in their first innings and lost a staggering 4 wickets to spin.
In response, India reached their target but with great difficulty winning the game with just a ball to spare. Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) took stock of the situation and suspended its curator Surender Kumar following the conclusion of that match.
Soon after, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) intervened to take the matter in their own hands in a bid to revitalize the detoriating surface at EKNA stadium. But their ill planned pitch doctoring approach had no impact on altering the degrading quality of the pitch.
It is learnt that the pitch was handed over to the BCCI in February, just 50 days before the commencement of IPL. Unfortunately, the window period within which the renovation had to be completed was very limited.
"BCCI had decided to send a panel of curators to look after the pitch in Lucknow. They decided to do grassing on the square in such a short time frame. That has backfired. The pitches have stayed undercooked," a BCCI source told TOI.
Grassing the pitch requires a minimum of six weeks to settle down which entails utmost care and round the clock monitoring. However, BCCI's rushed response to resurrecting the track has immensely backfired causing the pitch to deteriorate even further.
Furthermore, the home side also voiced their dissatisfaction for not being able to conduct their pre-season training drills ahead of the IPL 2023 season. They were forced to set up a make shift camp at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in February-March which didn't allow the LSG team management to make a complete assessment of the pitch.
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