India vs England, 1st T20I: Motera Stadium pitch report, Ahemdabad weather pattern

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Ahmedabad, March 11: The Motera Stadium pitch has been in talks since the third Test, a Pink Ball affair, and in that context, it is natural that the 22-yard strip come into focus ahead of the first T20I between India and England on Friday (March 12).

In fact, all the five T20Is will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, the world's largest cricket stadium. Let's take a look at some essential factors like pitch and weather at Ahmedabad.

1. Pitch at Motera Stadium

The third Test, which was a day-night contest, between England and India saw the trampoline favouring spinners, particularly those from the home side. The Test match got over in less than two days, and it was that pitch set the tongues wagging. But the fourth Test saw a better pitch, though the England batsmen failed to counter R Ashwin and Axar Patel, and that Test got over on the third day.

But the T20Is might saw a pitch that is slightly flatter and favour the batsmen. A total in the vicinity of 160-170 could be a challenging one for the chasing team. That said, both the teams are filled with power-hitters. India have Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya etc, while England boast of Eoin Morgan, Dawid Malan, who is in excellent form of late, Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow etc.

The batting sides are quite capable of breaking all the shackles and score bigger totals than the average mentioned above and it could be a run fest for the limited spectators.

2 The weather at Ahmedabad

Summer has set in this Western India city and is scorching as usual. The match day weather in the noon stands at a peak of 36 degree Celsius. But the T20Is start at 7 PM IST and that will see a considerable drop in the weather to a cosier 30-33 degree region. There is no chance of rain in any of the match days.