On Sunday, the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup will be played on this ground between host India and Australia.Obviously, this is also the first big test for the pitch of the world's largest cricket stadium with a capacity of 1.25 lakh spectators.
Earlier known as Motera, many important matches have taken place in this stadium, including the quarter-final of the 2011 World Cup, which coincidentally took place between India and Australia. India won on a pitch that was said to be perfect for batting.
With the renovation of the stadium, new pitches were also laid here and generally it has been seen that after that the pitch here has been favorable for batting.
Senior cricket analyst Ayaz Memon has covered dozens of big batches at the Ahmedabad cricket ground and according to him, "Here the batsmen do not have to struggle with the pitch. If the pitch is rolled more and the grass is removed from the top, then spin bowling will become easier." Help will also be available."
If we look at the history and talk about ODI matches, so far 30 ODI matches have been played in Ahmedabad, out of which the team batting first has won 15 and the team chasing the target of 15 runs has won.
It is important to remember that despite the slow pitch, the batting average on the ground in Ahmedabad is only around five runs per over. However, in the last few years, the pitch in Ahmedabad has seen more pace than before and it has also helped the batsmen in scoring runs in IPL matches.
Interestingly, in the opening match of the same World Cup - in which current champion England faced last year's finalist team New Zealand - New Zealand's Devon Conway made 152 not out, the highest individual score in ODI cricket at this ground. Have also made your name.
Team India had an optional nets practice on Friday in which not all the players came but the team management was present to take decisions.
Captain Rohit Sharma, coach Rahul Dravid, batting coach Vikram Rathore, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and fielding coach T Dilip inspected every corner of the pitch for at least 20 minutes and kept talking among themselves.
Four World Cup matches have been held at this ground and except the first one, all three have been low-scoring because the pitch has provided more support to slow bowling i.e. spin. In this context, Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja should get help in their 20 overs.
As far as Australia is concerned, in the semi-final against South Africa in Kolkata, their batsmen were seen struggling with spin bowling and Steve Smith was even clean-bowled on the carrom ball.
There will be only one big dilemma in the Indian camp regarding the pitch. If this pitch plays slowly, then the hard work of the Indian pace trio, which has been lethal in the tournament so far, will increase.
Bumrah, Shami and Siraj need some help from the pitch for their seam bowling which will require some grass. However, out of the last five matches played on this ground, three matches have been won by those teams who bowled first and chased the target later.
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