India. Spin city. You know the drill. A visiting team rocks up, especially one from outside Asia, and gets greeted by tracks that turn as viciously as King Lear’s kids. The rule of thumb says that’s fair enough – teams are free to play in the conditions that suit them most, like Australia’s bouncy pitches or England’s seamers.
It does feel a little different when the curators play horticultural Frankenstein, stitching together disparate parts to become an incongruous whole. With the first Test in the Border-Gavaskar series about to start on Thursday, it’s hard to draw any other conclusion from the images of the Nagpur ground staff watering the pitch outside the off stump for right-handed batters, of which India will probably play nine, while leaving it bare and dry outside the off stump for left-handers, of which Australia could play seven.
