A day before the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a few Australian cricket experts have accused India of 'doctoring' the pitch to suit the host team. Multiple pictures of the pitch surfaced on social media with Steve Smith's remark of a pretty dry pitch also adding fuel to the fire.
Notably, the former Australian captain said that left-arm spinners could get a lot of assist in the series opener at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. However, with some former cricketers and pundits claiming it to be a case of pitch doctoring, they have even demanded an International Cricket Council (ICC) intervention in the issue.
A report carried by Fox Cricket claimed that only the centre part of the Nagpur surface was watered and rolled. In addition, the report said that the areas of the pitch which will apparently be targeted by the left-arm spinners to extract extra assistance from the pitch was left dry.
The same practice was purportedly done on both ends of the pitch and is said to be a ploy of the Indian team, in this report, to make life difficult for visiting left-handed batters like David Warner and Usman Khawaja.
That's straight-up pitch doctoring: Australian journalist
Meanwhile, a senior sports scribe has described this as doctoring, given Australia have more left-handers in their top-order than India.
"The classic saying about pitches is, 'Oh, it's the same for everyone'," senior Australian sports journalist Robert Craddock said on SEN. "When the Gabba pitch had too much grass left on it, people were saying, 'Yes, it was not a great wicket, but it was the same everyone'.
"But you can't say that about this pitch. Australia has six left-handers in their top eight, so if you start multi-preparing parts of the deck that's straight-up pitch doctoring, it's poor."
"Ninety percent of me feels frustrated about it, but the other 10 percent is it's a narrative for the series, it's just building up beautifully, isn't it?
"It's a bit of old-fashioned hijinks. Test cricket needs these plots and the drama side of me enjoys it," he said.
Meanwhile, ex-Australian all-rounder Simon O'Donnell said that the ICC should step in and investigate into the details of the issue.
"The ICC should step in and do something about it, if they think it's not right," the former Victoria cricketer said.
"If they think the pitch is not right, there'll be an ICC referee at the game and the ICC will be watching this game. But there's so many when it comes to India, we have all of these discussions, and nothing seems to happen.
"If they really think there's a pitch here that doesn't play to the normal standards of test cricket and the characteristics of this ground, then the ICC need to do something," he added.
For now, the 1st Test is all set to commence on February 9 at 09:30 am (IST).