‘I think pitch will take spin from ball one’ – Smith

Posted on February 23, 2017

'I think pitch will take spin from ball one' - Smith

India v Australia at Pune – Feb 23-27, 2017: 1st Test: Match scheduled to begin at 09:30 local | 04:00 GMT

Ind V Aus : Smith told reporters that the pitch was “incredibly dry”. “I think it will take spin from ball one,” Smith said. “There are a couple of divots out of the wicket as well. I haven’t really seen a wicket like that before a Test match, so I think it is going to take a lot of spin and potentially some up and down movement for the fast bowlers as well.”

“When someone started to look a little bit comfortable against one of the spinners, they’d just change it and bowl someone else,” Smith said. “And then when they start looking comfortable against them they go back.

And you can chop and change and not let the batter get in a bit of a rhythm against a spinner. I guess that’s part of the thinking behind potentially playing three spinners. But we’ll wait and see.”

India’s captain Virat Kohli agreed the pitch was dry, but didn’t seem as alarmed as Australia might have been. “Even in the one-day games that we have played here, the surface was dry underneath,” Kohli said.

2nd Test: India v Australia at Bangalore on Mar 4-8, 2017 (09:30 local | 04:00 GMT)

3rd Test: India v Australia at Ranchi on Mar 16-20, 2017 (09:30 local | 04:00 GMT)