Wearing a sheepish smile, Ajaz Patel broke into an apology: “Sorry, I have a really bad memory. I don’t remember that pitch really.” The pitch where he claimed all ten wickets three years ago, the 22-yarder that has defined his life. The one thing that he remembers is that “it looked drier.” But he fires the caveat: “We’re still two days out from the game. So it is going to change over the next couple of days. You know that that red soil is going to offer you a bit more pace and a bit more bounce and it will definitely turn, it’s just a matter of when.”
On the last point hinges the destiny of most of the matches in the subcontinent — when it would start turning. From the first ball of the game or third day or the fourth. How much it would turn, whether it turns square, whether variable bounce would kick in, whether it becomes a lottery wicket where spinners, even part-timers, just turn in and reap a rich produce. Adding to the intrigue, Wankhede has witnessed all sorts, from the devilish dustbowl where Michael Clarke snared six wickets for nine runs in 2004 to the more mellowed turner where England stumbled on the fourth and fifth days in 2016. Sky-risers have been raised on it— two six-hundred plus scores, four in the 500s. There had been low-fliers too—eleven scores below 150, the lowest (62) etched by New Zealand in the Ajaz 10-for game.
A chunk of the totals had been in the 300s, implying the equity of the bat-ball contests. Among the top-10 wicket-takers on the ground are six spinners and four seamers (Kapil Dev, Karsan Ghavri, Ian Botham and Courtney Walsh). Seamers account for four of the top-five figures here.
The veteran former curator Nadim Memon chimes in: “You will understand from the numbers and results that the pitch offers something for everything for everyone. Spinners would get turn, seamers good bounce and carry. The ball comes nicely along for batsmen. It’s how they utilise the conditions that matter. Usually they are good Test match wickets that produce results. Only seven of the 26 Tests here have not produced a result. Some of them were induced by unseasonal rains.
First day of practice session. Team India gears up for the final Test against New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty 30-10-24, Mumbai
But he emphasises two factors. The grass on the wicket and the weather. “If there is not much grass, it will dry faster, especially with little rain or breeze, and take turn. It would crumble faster and the pitch could start saying something to the batsman, as Sachin Tendulkar used to say. If it has grass, the turn at first would be slow. The constants are bounce and carry,” he observes. The weather has been hot and humid, with a groundsman joking that you could make omelettes on the outfield. Stacks of water bottles lay scattered on the outfield. Batsmen unbuttoned helmets to wipe the sweat dripping onto their face. Tired bowlers lay scrambled on the ground.
Barely a leaf moved in the vicinity. The sea breeze in the evening used to be a decisive component. The grey window panes above the Sunil Gavaskar and Vijay Merchant Pavilions chart an unobstructed path for the sea breeze to blow in, enabling seamers to hoop the ball around .“But there is no breeze these days, the air is still. The breeze usually arrives later in the day, around 5.00-5-30 pm. So it would not impact the game much,” he says.
Two days before the game, the pitch looked dry and the grass scant. The good length area for the spinners looked redder than the midriff of the surface. Either side of 1 pm, the ground-staff let the strip bake in the scorching sun. In irregular intervals, they watered the pitch with sprinklers to ensure that some moisture is retained, lest the surface breaks prematurely. Regular, though, was the sight of groundsmen rolling the pitch, often with the heavy roller and intermittently with the lighter one. Usually, the Wankhede pitches are firm and hard and don’t crack up. “The clayey content in the red soil ensures that it doesn’t break up and cause cracks. Rather, the top layer starts to crumble (as the game progresses). The soil becomes a little loose,” Memon says.
Red plumes of dust whirling in the air strike you when you watch the highlights of the India-Australia Test in 2004. On Wednesday too, dust swirled from the practice nets and most of the massive net-bowling contingent had their shirts and pants smeared in red dust. The red-soil base also guarantees that the ball would grip off the surface. The turn would be sharp and teams would pack more close-in fielders
New Zealand’s Mitchell Santner celebrates the wicket of India’s Ravichandran Ashwin on the second day of the second test cricket match between India and New Zealand, at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, in Pune, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (PTI Photo)
Everything, thus, indicates to a turner. But turners would not daunt New Zealand, fresh from the Pune exploits, albeit on a black-soil one, where dual bounce than sharp turn aided them. Mitchell Santner showed his chops in Pune, while the largely anonymous Patel could have a bigger impact in this game. He landed in Mumbai a fortnight before the series began and trained at the MIG Club in Bandra to groove-in for the long shifts that awaited him.
But Patel still thinks “India has the wood over New Zealand” on turners. Not just the batsmen—in eight innings Virat Kohli averages 58, Rohit Sharma scored a hundred in his only outing, Sarfaraz Khan and Yashasvi Jaiswal know their home ground like the back of the hands—but the Indian spinners too. “India have got phenomenal spinners,” he says, in a tone of awe.
Both Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have enjoyed the extra bounce and the sharp turn it offers. Both studied the pitch, in between their shifts. They would be beset with the same set of doubts as Patel and Co. When it would turn and how much it would, factors that determine the destiny of Tests in Wankhede. Turn, though, it certainly would.
