Rohit Sharma double century loading’- Fans react as pictures of pitch for 3rd test against England at Rajkot goes viral
India and England are back after a 10-day break for the 2nd leg of the five-match Test series which will start on 15th February at Rajkot. The series is currently levelled at 1-1 and is set to be an exciting series as both teams will come hard at each other.
As the Test match is one day away, speculations about how the nature of the pitch is rife. In the first two Tests, the pitches have garnered praise from the fans and teams from both sides. Both the matches have gone on to the fourth day and there has been a balance between the ball and the bat.
Ravindra Jadeja’s assessment of the Rajkot wicket
The pitch at Rajkot has traditionally been batting-friendly and if we go by the pictures of the pitch which have gone viral on social media, it looks like a good batting wicket that will support the spinners as the match progresses. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who will be playing the test at his home ground assessed the wicket to be a batting-friendly pitch.
While speaking about the pitch at the pre-match press conference Jadeja said, “Here the wicket is flat and hard, but depends on what they have prepared. Sometimes you get 37 wickets in three matches (days), but this wicket looks good.”
He further stated, “Here the wicket behaves differently in every game. Sometimes it stays flat, sometimes it turns, sometimes it plays well for two days and then turns. I believe it will play well first and then slowly it will break and the ball will turn.”
India will enter with an inexperienced middle-order
England have announced their playing XI for the 3rd Test match and they have made only 1 change in their XI. They have called in Mark Wood back in the playing XI in place of Shoaib Bashir.
On the other hand, for India Sarfaraz Khan would make his debut which will leave the Indian middle-order quite inexperienced as Shreyas Iyer has been dropped from the test side and KL Rahul has been declared unfit for the 3rd test by the Indian medical team.
Fans reaction
After the pictures of the wicket went viral, fans on social media jumped on the bandwagon and expressed their views about the wicket for the 3rd test based on the pictures. Here are some of the tweets from the fans:
https://twitter.com/Aanya18_/status/1757710175279214665
Good batting and bowling pitch is visible…both batsmen and bowlers advantage…
— Subhash Choudhary (@subhash92) February 14, 2024
Paata pitch.
Batting Paradise…
Batsman will be happy😊😁— Ajay Gautam (@gautam_ajay007) February 14, 2024
Flat Pitch for #Bazball Show pic.twitter.com/fgNGm0jgLd
— IPL Scoop (@Ipl_scoop) February 14, 2024
Doesn't look like an absolute belter of a pitch – there should be a tad bit fo fast bowlers and then a slow turner
— Aarsh Desai (@AarshDesai3) February 14, 2024
Advance congratulations to england
— whatever (@Ustad102) February 14, 2024
What😭
Ab toss mat haar jana, England wale 2 din tak sweep aur reverse sweep marate rahenge😂
— Varun Giri (@Varungiri0) February 14, 2024
https://twitter.com/Saqlain5608/status/1757637631612015049
