The Narendra Modi Stadium wicket which hosted the day-night Test between India and England grabbed a lot of attention after it ended within two days. While the spectrum is divided into two halves what does the ICC rule book say about spin-friendly tracks?
Meanwhile, India scalped a victory by 10 wickets to go 2-1 in the series with one match still to go. The Motera wicket earned a lot of criticisms from cricketers like Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh. On the other hand, Sunil Gavaskar, Kevin Pietersen among many had defended the nature of the wickets citing 21 of the 30 wickets that fell were from straight deliveries.
When asked about his verdict of the pitch, England skipper Joe Root highlighted the fact that a part-time spinner like him got 5 wickets in the first innings. The feat, which although is a huge one for the England captain, does shed light on the sort of help spinners were getting from the wicket.
“If I’m getting five wickets on there then you can tell it is giving a fair amount of spin, that sums the pitch up slightly. There always has to be an element of home advantage, because that is part of the beauty of Test cricket.
“You go around the world playing in all these wonderful places and you have to learn to develop your game, to find different ways. It’s just how extreme you’re willing to let the wickets be,” Root said at the end of the game.
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What does the ICC rule book say?
When it comes to spin-friendly tracks, the ICC rulebook has definite criteria when it comes to rating a pitch poor. According to the global body – ICC, a poor pitch is one that doesn’t allow an even contest between bat and bat.
“A poor pitch is one that does not even allow an even contest between bat and ball, either by favouring batters too much, and not giving the bowlers (seam and spin) from either side sufficient opportunity to take wickets, or by favouring the bowlers too much (seam or spin), and not giving the batters from either team the opportunity to make runs,” ICC rules state. “The pitch offers excessive assistance to spin bowlers, especially early in the match,” it adds.
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