India unhappy over practice pitches at Wanderers

Johannesburg, January 22: The on-going South Africa trip of India has attracted headlines for all the wrong reasons. A series loss. Woeful outings of batsmen. Debatable selections. And the latest in that line is Indian team's grouse against practice pitches on offer at the Wanderers, venue of the third and final Test from Wednesday (January 24).

How it started

India batting coach Sanjay Bangar took bowlers Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a batting session and then they proceeded to bowl to Indian batsmen. Bangar noticed that that pitch was not rolled to the demand of Indian camp and complained the same to head coach Ravi Shastri.

What Shastri did

Shastri then approached Wanderers curator Butuel Buthelezi and asked him to roll the practice pitch again and he obliged.

(Watch Rohit Sharma training at the Wanderers).

The curator gets moving

After both Shastri and Bangar approached him with the complaint Buthelezi rolled all over again the three practice pitches.

Behind the scene

The Centurion curator Bryan Bloy had coped some amount of criticism from South Africans for providing a pitch with variable bounce, the kind you find in the sub-continent.

Despite South Africa winning the Test comfortably, skipper Faf du Plessis expressed his displeasure over the nature of pitch and demanded more lively tracks to suit the home bowlers.