Australia beat England in the 1987 World Cup final in Eden Gardens. The wicket spun so much that the very part-time bowling of Allan Border took the crucial wicket of Mike Gatting. At this point, Allan Border, the new Australian captain, had played 160 ODI matches; in them, he averaged 7.3 balls a match. He had managed to take 27 wickets in those balls. In 1987, he’d already played 22 games and yet had only four wickets. To say he was part-time was pushing it. But he was left-arm orthodox, and it spun. Border wicket of Gatting from a badly played reverse sweep gave Australia a title, and kept England in the dark days of limited-overs cricket.
The Eden Gardens surface was a typical Indian wicket, which is why Border brought himself on. But the man who oversaw that pitch was not Indian. Because it was such a major tournament, the BCCI brought in Australian curator Les Burnett, the man who ran the Adelaide Oval. In those days, it was probably a nod to the fact that India didn’t want to be seen as getting too much of an advantage from their home wickets. Also to appease the many who didn’t think India should be the first country to organise (with Pakistan as co-host ) a World Cup outside of England.
ICC control over pitches
The 2023 Cricket World Cup will be played on Indian pitches again, but the sport has now changed so much that the ICC, and not the local curators, have a say over the wickets. In 2019, England would have liked flatter batting wickets. In last year’s T20 World Cup, Australia would have liked something for more run scoring. But ICC events no longer work that way.
So what does that mean for India this World Cup, who have been proudly doctoring their wickets in Tests to suit their incredible spin triumvirate? Cricket betting sites favour India as the top contender for the trophy, but is there something in the way of challenging the home team?
India’s spin strength
In cricket, a lot is made of doctored wickets, but in truth, conditions are mostly so different that they help the home side either way. The ball will spin on most surfaces, not even Les Burdett could stop that. That will assist India. Yes, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and even South Africa have spinners as well. But while we often group all Asian wickets together on masse, there are subtle differences. India has an attack that suits Indian wickets. They will spin the ball two different ways, wrist and spin, attack and defend.
India’s options are so good at spin that they could leave R Ashwin out of their squad, so any assistance for them will be helpful.
Batting and bowling balance
Of course, Indian wickets for white-ball cricket generally favour run scoring. South Africa, England and Pakistan are faster, but the strike rate of all batters in India has been 89. Sri Lanka has been 84, and the West Indies and Australia are in the 70s. India has incredible batting talent, there biggest argument is which hugely talented player to overlook.
But India also has great seam bowling, you can ask any Sri Lankan batter from the Asia Cup final, if any of them are still with us. So even if the ICC tries to even out the surfaces a little, India doesn’t fall behind much. Compare that to England in the 2017 Champions Trophy, who were still working on building their side. The ICC gave them a used, tired wicket down at Cardiff that was very slow, and Pakistan outplayed them.
What kind of surface wouldn’t suit this Indian team right now? Perhaps one with a lot of lateral movement for quicks would slow down their batters, but it still helps their bowlers. At best, it makes the game more of a dogfight. You can’t make the wicket spin because (if Axar Patel is fit) India can use three spinners in their lineup because two of them can bat. Also, because of that, their batting lineups can be very long, with Shardul Thakur’s chaos hitting at number nine at times. Maybe a wicket with extra bounce can upset them, but even the great Les Burdett would struggle to do that to Indian wickets.
Home advantage and pressure
There are disadvantages to playing at home. While the hosts have won the last three World Cups, traditionally, it was almost seen as a curse until India did it in 2011.
In a country like India, where there is so much extra focus, there is no way for the players to turn off. The Indian XI have really felt the pressure to perform in the last few tournaments that it has almost frozen them. That will be amped up to a level we have never seen before. An early loss could be really tough, especially with past failures in ICC events.
But India could play in a pot of molasses on the dark side of the moon and the pressure would be incredible. In this World Cup, they at least get wickets that will suit them, maybe the odd home-cooked meal, conditions they are used to and home crowd support in every single match.
It would be hard to see how this isn’t an advantage this World Cup. They would probably be a top-three chance on any surface cricket could provide right now. But at home, on their wickets, even if they’re curated by the Ice Cream sellers, India are the team to beat.
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