IND vs ENG Ranchi Pitch Report: England left sweating ahead of fourth Test - 'Have never seen something like that'

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IND vs ENG Ranchi Pitch Report: The first three Tests of the five-match series had nothing England or their media can complain about. The wickets on offer played just fine for the batters to score runs, and quality bowlers to take wickets.

Despite England being over cautious and playing just two pacers in the first two Tests, India persisted with their combination of two pacers and three spinners. England did the same in the third Test in Rajkot where India won by 434 runs to take a 2-1 lead.

(JSCA Stadium in Ranchi, Picture from 2017)

India pacer Jasprit Bumrah is the leading wicket-taker in the series. He has picked seven wickets at an average of 13.65. Yashasvi Jaiswal has hit two double hundreds, while the likes of Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja have also reached the three-figure mark.

The numbers prove that the visitors have been given the opportunity to challenge India on pitches supporting the batters and bowlers equally. In the first Test, England bounced back by overcoming a 190-run first innings lead.

However, their fear of facing India on a rank turner has creeped back once again. The dark texture of the Ranchi pitch, and 'platy' cracks have given the English side the impression that India would play an extra spinner in the absence of Bumrah who has been rested for the match.

First look of Ranchi Pitch scares England

"I've never seen something like that before. I have got no idea so I don't know what could happen. 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," England captain Ben Stokes have told BBC Sport ahead of the match.

Vice-captain Ollie Pope had a similar view. He declared that scoring runs would be difficult before adding that India could aim to bring Axar Patel also in their playing eleven.

"Looks like a very interesting pitch. Plenty of platy cracks, one half is good. The other half has flaky cracks, look like. Not a very belter kind of surface. So let’s see what happens when India have a look at it later in the day. Every chance India can play an extra spinner - Axar Patel definitely an option for them. They have watered the pitch so potentially an extra spinner could be seen from India,"Ollie Pope said while interacting to the media.

"The top layer looked crusty. The cracks in the wicket aren’t just cracks, there are separate bits of ground that could open up with a lot of sun on them. The ball could deviate more off them if they open up like we expect them to,” he would detail his assessment of the surface," he added.

“With Japsrit missing the Test, they could go down the avenue (of dishing out a turner and unleashing four spinners),” he further added ahead of the fourth Test which starts from Friday, February 23.