Andy Flower and Sanjay Manjrekar criticised the pitch and the conditions that were used for the India-Ireland T20 World Cup clash, where Rohit Sharma retired hurt after several deliveries with uneven bounce troubled the batters.
India began their T20 World Cup campaign with a convincing win over Ireland in New York, but the drop-in wicket posed plenty of problems for both sides. Run-scoring was difficult as only 193 runs were scored in the entire match at 6.84 per over on a sluggish wicket and a slow outfield.
The variable bounce on the drop-in strip proved to be dangerous as several deliveries took off sharply from the surface, and several players copped blows. Harry Tector was hit on the glove twice, while Rishabh Pant and Rohit Sharma were hit multiple times, eventually forcing the latter to retire hurt for 52.
This is the first time that the newly built Nassau Cricket Stadium, one of three venues in the USA that will co-host the T20 World Cup, is hosting international cricket.
Andy Flower later said the New York pitch was bordering on the dangerous, and was not fit for international cricket. “I’ve got to say that is not a good surface to play an international match on. It's bordering on dangerous. You saw the ball bouncing from a length both ways, skidding low occasionally, but in the main bouncing unusually high and striking people on the thumb, on the gloves, on the helmet and making life very very difficult for any batsman,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “It proved very, very tricky batting conditions for any side, let alone a smaller, cricketing nation like Ireland taking on the giants of India.”
Sanjay Manjrekar echoed Flower’s sentiments. He felt that something might have gone wrong during the preparation of the drop-in pitches. This was the third game being held in New York in the event, including the India-Bangladesh warm-up match. South Africa and Sri Lanka played out a low-scoring thriller earlier in the competition, with the Proteas needing 16.2 overs to chase down Sri Lanka’s score of 77. The conditions in the practice game were criticised as well.
“We've seen dangerous pitches before as well at the international level,” he said. “But something's gone wrong with the preparations, where either the pitch has been under-prepared or something that is beyond their control. This seems more like something beyond their control where they put in a lot of work in trying to get the right surface in the Big Apple and all that.
“But I said that a couple of days back as well, what can they do to make the pitch better? I’m sure it's not a lack of effort. At the most what they can do is keep rolling that drop-in pitch. But they have a problem on their hands. Inherently there's something wrong with the pace of the surface.”
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