India unhappy with pitch for SL practice match? Details here
What's the story
Ahead of their two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, Team India will play a three-day practice match from Friday. The game against Sri Lanka XI will be played at the Nondescripts Cricket Club (NCC) Ground in Colombo. However, reports suggest that the Indian team management is not happy with the amount of grass left on the wicket for this match.
Pitch response
Here is what Francke said
A Francke, an official at the NCC Ground, defended the decision to leave grass on the pitch while speaking to Revsportz.
He said that "the Indian team said that there is too much grass on the wicket, but that is how we keep it because it is a three-day game."
He added, "You can't give a wicket without grass. Other than that, they were happy with it."
Pitch explanation
Sri Lanka Cricket requested a light covering of grass
Francke further explained that a light covering of grass was left at the request of Sri Lanka Cricket.
He also noted that despite the grass, NCC wickets have been known to be good batting tracks.
Francke also predicted how the pitch will behave over the three days. He expects it to be good for batting in the first half, but spinners could come into play later on.
Match significance
Importance of the practice match for India
The practice match is especially important as it is India's last chance to get used to Sri Lankan conditions before the Test series.
With only two matches in the series, this warm-up game will help the visitors finalize their combinations, assess player form, and allow their bowlers to adjust to local conditions.
Notably, India couldn't acclimatize to the conditions in Ireland and England after playing on flat decks at home.
Squad
A look at Indian squad
India will enter the series without Jasprit Bumrah, who is still recovering from a knee injury, and Washington Sundar, who is out with a hamstring issue.
Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Akash Deep are also unavailable.
Squad: Shubman Gill (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Sai Sudharsan (fitness pending), Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain, and Auqib Nabi.