Mohanty may replace Chauhan

CALCUTTA, MARCH 16: Inside the magnificent Eden Gardens, the sight-screens get an additional coat of white as part of the spruce-up before t...

CALCUTTA, MARCH 16: Inside the magnificent Eden Gardens, the sight-screens get an additional coat of white as part of the spruce-up before the second India-Australia Test starts on Wednesday. In another corner, the busybees of the Trans World International are unloading tonnes of heavy equipment to set up miles and miles of wires that will eventually bring the cricketing action live into millions of homes, with the slow motions, spin vision and other such modern marvels for added pleasure.

The players themselves are quite relaxed. The lush-green carpet is a beehive of activity as the players hone their skills and stretch their muscles. The wicket is the topic of much discussion. The rectangle has a fair sprinkling of grass and looks hard from the top.

National selector Sambaran Banerjee, who has played all his cricket for Bengal, opines that it will afford a lot of bounce. Which means, the Indians could bolster their seam attack by drafting in Debashis Mohanty for Rajesh Chauhan. The Aussies, on the otherhand, are skeptical: “We doubt if the grass will be retained on the day of the match,” said one player in a chat with a television broadcaster.

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Probir Mukherjee, the curator with 45 years of experience behind him, told The Indian Express that it rained here copiously on the 13th and 14th and maybe some of the moisture beneath could come up later. But he was confident that the bounce will be even and the ball will come on to the bat.

Ever since the debacle of the last World Cup, the Eden track has come in for much media attention. In the semi-finals of that championship, India crumbled against Sri Lankan spinners on an under prepared track, leading to the match being called off following spectator violence.

Since then, the pitch has been relaid and the first Test on the new strip was the India-South Africa game in 1996. It was a match in which debutante Lance Klusener took eight wickets to help his country come level-pegging in the series.

Not surprisingly, the track came in for praise from SouthAfrican skipper Hansie Cronje and coach Bob Woolmer, who credited it as the best wicket they have come across in the country.

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With nearly two days to go for the main action, Indian coach Anshuman Gaekwad did not comment on the wicket and his team’s composition. “We are not looking to draw the Tests here and in Bangalore to win the series 1-0. We will be playing to win and not to draw. That’s what I mean by being positive in our approach.”