India vs New Zealand, 3rd Test: How Will The Pitch Behave At Wankhede Stadium?

India vs New Zealand, 3rd Test: India are 0-2 down in the three-match Test series but the final Test will not be a dead rubber by any stretch of the imagination, given WTC points will be at stake.

India vs New Zealand, 3rd Test: India will be up against New Zealand in the third and final Test match of the three-match series at the Wankhede Stadium beginning on November 1. The hosts have lost a Test series at home for the first time in 12 years and now find themselves at the danger of not making it to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Points table if they are not dust themselves off and pull themselves up.

That makes the Mumbai Test extremely crucial for India who would want to earn all the points on offer before heading to Australia for a five-match series where sterner challenges await the Indian team. And now it seems like that Indian team management has taken some bold decisions regarding the nature of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium. A report carried by TOI suggests that the pitch for the third Test between India and New Zealand is unlikely to be a rank turner.

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"It will be a sporting track. Right now, there's a bit of grass on the pitch. It's expected to be good for batting on Day 1 but should offer turn to spinners from Day 2," a credible source told the aforementioned publication.

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It is being learnt, as claimed in the same report, that the BCCI chief pitch curator Ashish Bhowmick along with the elite panel curator Taposh Chatterjee recently met Wankhede curator Ramesh Mamunkar to review the pitch.

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In the last Test match that was played at this venue in December 2021, India had comfortably beaten the Kiwis by 372 runs. The hosts ended up bowling out BlackCaps for 62 and 167 on a pitch that offered assitance to spinners. India made 325 and then declared at 276 for seven. It was in this match that Ajaz Patel had scalped all the ten wickets in an innings, finishing with figures of 10 for 119 in the first innings and then adding 4 for 104 in the second.