MELBOURNE: Melbourne Cricket Ground’s (MCG) chief curator Matt Page dismissed India’s concerns regarding the practice pitches ahead of the Boxing Day Test, scheduled to commence on Thursday.
According to the Indian media, the touring side expressed displeasure on allegedly being given worn out pitches, particularly those used for white-ball matches, to practice on for the all-important clash.
Report further claimed that two Indian players, including skipper Rohit Sharma and Akash Deep sustained blows in the net session.
Rohit was struck on the knee and had to receive medical attention, while Akash also sustained a blow. The right-arm pacer claimed that India were practising on the pitches being used for the Big Bash League (BBL), which offered uneven bounce.
“We keep getting hit in the nets. That is fine. I think this wicket was for white ball, which is why the ball kept low at times. But these blows are common in training,” Akash Deep said.
Meanwhile, MCG’s chief curator Page defended the pitches and insisted he followed the years-old protocols during the curation.
"For us, three days out, we prepare Test match pitches for here. If teams come and train before that, they get what pitches we have had." Page said.
"Today, we are on fresh pitches. If India had trained (Monday) morning, they would have been on those fresh pitches - it's shock standard procedure for us, three days out.
“We’ve seen three fantastic Test matches so far on three great pitches. So, for us, it’s trying to do something similar to what we’ve done the past couple of years and create a thrilling contest.”
Page further revealed that the pitch is likely to support slow bowlers but warned it might get quicker due to rising temperature of the city.
“It’s (the weather) been factored in … now how far we go, we don’t know. We’ll just monitor – with Melbourne, the weather can change quite quickly,” Page said. “It probably means it might quicken up (in pace) a bit quicker than it would if it was 20C.”