Green Park track looks spin-friendly

“I know what India’s strengths are and you will find this wicket favouring the spinners from day one,” Chotey Lal goes on to say, taking pride in his being not only a good curator but also being a staunch supporter of the Indian team. Well, to base one’s judgement solely on what Chotey Lal has to say would be inviting ridicule if things don’t turn out to be as predicted.

The same man in 1996 had said similar words when India were facing South Africa in the third and deciding Test match of that series. As the drama enfolded then, the wicket did not turn out to be a vicious turner. But it had so much uneven bounce that the Indians romped home without much fight from the rivals. It was a wicket tailor-made for, say, someone like Anil Kumble.

The Indians, who have gone through exacting limbering-up exercises here for the past two days and have had a fine measure of this bowl-shaped stadium, mustn’t have been too disappointed by what they saw of this 22-yard strip. Hard to feel, but by the looks of it, a typical grassless wicket with cracks wide enough to make a spinner’s finger twitch with excitement. That takes the mind to what kind of eleven would India prefer to play here.

At Mohali, on the fifth day, India probably missed a genuine off-spinner. Though Kapil Dev feels that Vijay Bhardawaj is a genuine off-spinner, capable of “running through a side” it is very much possible that on a wicket like this India may want to play five specialist bowlers. If that becomes their line of thinking, then off-spinner Harbhajan Singh could come in place of the talented Bhardawaj, whose main forte is his batting and not bowling. It is a decision which won’t be easy to take, as Bhardawaj performed exceedingly well in the three-day game which his side Karnataka won with surprising ease against the tourists.

This brings one to the second important aspect which could have an important bearing on this Test: The morale of the New Zealanders. The morale of the New Zealanders must have gone through a curvacious path in the Mohali Test and there can be little doubt that the defeat against the Ranji Trophy champions before coming here must have made a severely dented their confidence. It is not that a touring side never gets beaten in the side games — stronger sides have suffered this fate — but the manner of their capitulation must be galling for the visitors.

That wicket at Bangalore by all accounts was not giving right-angle turn to the spinners, yet the batsmen fumbled miserably. The pyschological victory gained at Mohali by their batsmen was lost in a couple of hours’ meek surrender in Bangalore.

The spin-web, which Sunil Joshi and Anil Kumble wove around the Kiwi batsmen could still be at place and it will take a lot of skill and courage to break that spell here, especially if the reading of the wicket turns out to be even half as close to what is being predicted. The New Zealanders have little option but to field off spinner Paul Wisemen to give support to left arm spinner Daniel Vettori and the axe is likely to fall on the left-arm seamer Shayne O’Connor. It is a fine opportunity for these two spinners to test their skills against batsmen who feed on slow diet.

For New Zealand to come out with their honour unscathed here, two factors would be of immense significance: toss and the quality of their spin bowling. Ditto for India. Only that the odds overwhelmingly favour India.

TEAMS

India (likely): S Ramesh, D Gandhi, R Dravid, S Tendulkar, S Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh (V. Bhardawaj), MSK Prasad, S Joshi, A Kumble, J Srinath and V Prasad

New Zealand (from): S Fleming (capt), Matt Horne, M Bell, C Spearman, C McMillan, N Astle, C Cairns, A Parore, D Nash, D Vettori, P Wiseman, C Harris, S O’Connor

Umpires: AV Jayaprakash and Darrel Harper (Australia).

Third umpire: VM Gupte

Match referee: Ranjan Madugulle (Sri Lanka).

Hours of play: 1000-1200 hrs; 1240-1440; 1500-1700