No Test series in India could get interesting without any talks around the pitch. As India and England move to Ranchi to lock horns in the fourth game of the 5-match series, the strip at the JSCA stadium has certainly garnered attention after visiting captain Ben Stokes commented that he has never seen a surface like this.
The Ranchi track became the point of discussion after Ollie Pope on Wednesday talked about the ‘platey cracks’ in it, indicating turn and variable bounce to come into play from the word go. A day later, Stokes added to it saying that the appears interesting to him and he doesn’t have the idea how would it behave.
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“It looked interesting, didn’t it? I don’t know, I’ve never seen something like that before so I have got no idea. I don’t know what could happen,” Stokes said.
“If you looked down one side of opposite ends it just looked different to what I am used to seeing, especially out in India. It looked green and grassy up in the changing rooms, but then you go out there, it looked different. Very dark and crumbly and quite a few cracks in it,” he added.
No confirmation of his bowling
Stokes has been preventing himself from bowling full-tilt this series. In fact, he hasn’t rolled his arms over since returning from knee surgery last year. However, he has been training in the nets and has hinted at his return with the ball.
Asked about his possibility of bowling at Ranchi, Stokes remained non-committal.
“Before I had surgery I was told 12 to 13 weeks before I could start bowling. I am two weeks ahead of that and that’s the longest I’ve bowled but let’s see how everything is. If I feel I’m capable of bowling, I’ll bowl.”
“My knee itself was absolutely fine bowling (on Wednesday). It was just good to push past that 20-minute barrier, which is what I’ve been working around at the moment. It might be a bit stiff but we’ll wait and see,” he added.
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