Brendon McCullum is familiar with Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. He is one of the few overseas batters to enjoy a better record in the Indian subcontinent than at home, averaging 50 plus here. At the stadium in Uppal, his average is even better at 73.25.
It means, if you know the method to counter the conditions, there are runs to be had, even on these surfaces. Playing here in 2010, the dashing New Zealand batter had blasted a 225 at a strike-rate of 73 plus. When he returned in 2012, he made 22 and 42.
Now in his role as head coach of the England team on Tuesday morning he was at the nets in the Stadium campus, preparing his batters for the big test of spin ahead with his attacking brand of cricket.
One look at the Uppal pitch and it’s pretty clear that the track will turn. It is completely bald and with more rolling through the day while baking under the scorching sun, the surface looked whiter by the hour.
Locals in the know of conditions here, expect it to turn from Day 1. Then the Hyderabad Stadium pitch also offers good bounce. “It looks a good one (pitch) from what I’ve seen. May spin a little bit. How quickly and how fast, I’m not sure. But might spin a little bit certainly as the game goes on,” India coach Rahul Dravid said on Tuesday.
Ahead of the marquee contest, everyone is wondering whether McCullum and England’s Bazball approach will work in these conditions. But from their training, it was obvious that the tourists are not worrying about it. At least in the first Test, they are going to come and do what they want to do.
McCullum, who was giving throwdowns to his batters with a side-arm, oversaw a net session where his players were looking to attack and stay positive.
“They were all just looking to hit,” said Yashveer one of the Hyderabad Under-16 spinners who was at the visitor’s nets along with three more young spinners, two left-arm spinners and two off-break bowlers.
Operating three nets, the first batch started with Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes and Ben Stokes, followed by Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley, Joe Root and others walked in later. The tourists have come here thinking they want to play in a certain way — the paddle sweeps, reverse sweeps and slog sweeps were all out on show.
England’s think-tank is obviously clear on a sharp, turning track some ball will have your name on it, hence, no point defending a lot as you won’t last too long — make your stay count with runs.
For the first game out of five, the mindset of the England players will be free from any demons. They will go in reasonably confident they can manage to challenge R Ashwin & Co with all the preparations they have done.
In that sense, the first Test is crucial for England more than the home team, because if their tactics work then they have their approach sorted for the full series. In that scenario, India will also come under pressure, but if McCullum’s tactics don’t work then they will have a lot of work to do and reconsider their gameplan.
Dravid expected England batters to stick to their aggressive approach, but was confident of his bowlers responding to the challenge. “It’s certainly been exciting to watch them play and they’ve had success playing like that. So why wouldn’t you play like that?,” said Dravid. “But we know it’s going to be a challenge for them in these conditions as well. These are conditions that we know very well. We’ve got a lot of experience in our attack. As a coach, I’m looking forward to how our boys respond because I know that we’ll be put under pressure and I’m really hopeful that we respond positively.”
