IND vs NZ: Lucknow Pitch Curator Sacked After Hardik Pandya's 'Shocker' Remark

While the Kiwis were restricted to 99 on this pitch batting first, in response the Men In Blue got to their target in 19.5 overs on a wicket which offered a lot of assistance to spinners. 

"To be honest, it was a shocker of a wicket," Hardik had said after the second T20I expressing his displeasure on the kinds of wickets on offer in the both the T20Is so far.

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The pitch curator of the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow has reportedly been sacked for preparing a "shocker of a pitch" for the second T20I between India and New Zealand on Sunday (January 29). While the home team did manage to win the match with a ball to go and levelled the series 1-1, post the match the Indian skipper Hardik Pandya termed the surface a "shocker."

While the Kiwis were restricted to 99 on this pitch batting first, in response the Men In Blue got to their target in 19.5 overs on a wicket which offered a lot of assistance to spinners. 

"The curator has been removed and replaced by Sanjeev Kumar Agarwal who is a very experienced curator. We will turn things around in a month," an Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) source was quoted as saying by PTI.

"A lot of domestic cricket was already played on all the centre wickets ahead of the T20I and the curator should have left one or two strips for an international game. The surface was overused and due to the bad weather, there was not enough (time) to prepare a fresh wicket," the source added.

It is pertinent to note that Agarwal has prepared pitches in Bangladesh in the past. He has been asked by the State Cricket Association to make amends at the wicket and prepare a more sporting wicket. He is set to work in close quarters with BCCI curator Taposh Chatterjee, it was claimed in the PTI report.

Curator received last-minute request for changes in pitch: Report

Meanwhile, a separate report has emerged which suggests that the curator had received a last-minute request for changes in pitch, giving very less time to the curator to produce a good surface. The same has been claimed in an Indian Express report.

"At the behest of a last-minute request from team management three days prior to the match, the curator had been asked to prepare a fresh pitch made of red soil instead," this report said before adding that the red-soil wicket could not be prepared well at a short notice resulting in the kind of surface which was on display on Sunday. Originally, the curator had prepared two black soil pitches well before the match.

30 of the 39.5 overs bowled in the match were bowled by spinners.

Nonetheless, the series stands levelled at 1-1 with the decider set to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.