After India decimated Australia in the first 2 ODIs, the action will now shift to the Holkar Stadium, Indore for the 3rd game. The two Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have had a great time in the series so far and nature of the pitch in Indore is expected to assist them.
Samandar Singh Chauhan, the pitch curator at the venue has revealed that the surface is going to offer plenty of runs to the batsmen. In addition to that, the wrist spinners will be benefitted as well.
“We have used black cotton soil, brought from different parts of Madhya Pradesh. In this weather, it won’t crumble and it won’t be very dry. It has the capacity to hold water but it will be good for the wrist-spinners. We had used this pitch for a two-day match between our Ranji teams. Ninety overs were bowled on both days on September 7 and 8 and good runs were scored. It should be a high-scoring game,” Chauhan said.
A high-scoring venue
Holkar Stadium has a history of producing high-scoring matches. Virender Sehwag, in 2011, had notched up a double-century against West Indies. His knock of 219 was the then highest score in ODI cricket as India ended up scoring massive 418. The size of the ground is not too big and the boundaries are smaller as compared to other grounds.
The last ODI in Indore was played between India and South Africa in 2015 that India won courtesy a gritty 92 from MS Dhoni. The venue hosted its first ever Test in 2016 where India hosted New Zealand which also produced heaps of runs as Virat Kohli scored a double hundred.
The conditions certainly seem to be in the favor of the hosts and Australia will have a huge task at hand. It will be a do or die match for the visitors as one more loss would put down curtains for them in the series.
The weather in Indore in the last couple of days hasn’t been too different from the previous 2 venues. There is a certain rain threat looming over the match as the forecast for Sunday isn’t too promising. But the curator believes the ground staff needs just 1 hour to prepare the field irrespective of the amount of rain as the drainage system is quite good.
