India and Bangladesh brace for lower bounce on black-soil pitch in Kanpur for second Test

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Red soil will become black. Bounce and carry will be fleeting. And don’t expect a rank turner.

In a nutshell, that is likely to be the nature of the pitch at Green Park in Kanpur, where the second and final Test of the India-Bangladesh series starts on September 27.

It is understood that unlike the true bounce that lasted across the four days in the first Test in Chennai last week, the Green Park pitch will be flatter in nature, with the bounce lower and the surface becoming increasingly slower as the Test grows old. This is because of the black-soil content in the pitch.

That is in contrast to the Chepauk pitch, where both teams’ seamers and spinners fetched good bounce. That was a consequence of the pitch being made of the red soil that was imported from Mumbai two years ago. The bounce was a key factor in both teams playing three fast bowlers. While the degree of turn was not huge, allied with bounce, the Chepauk pitch had enough for spinners too, as shown by the Indian pair of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who took nine wickets between them in Bangladesh’s second innings.

The slower nature of the Kanpur pitch is bound to change both teams’ selection plans. It is likely that the third seamer could be replaced by a third spinner. That means one of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel could get a chance for India.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s selector Hannan Sarkar said on Monday in Chennai that Shakib Al Hasan is an injury doubt after his already hurting left index finger suffered a blow while batting on the fourth day. Even if Shakib plays the Test as an allrounder, Bangladesh may bring in left-arm spinner Taijul Islam in Nahid Rana’s place. The visitors also have offspinner Nayeem Hasan in the squad. He only comes into the picture if Shakib becomes unavailable, and Bangladesh still want to have three spinners in their line-up.

In the last Test played in Kanpur, against New Zealand in 2021, India played three spinners in Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar. That was the first Test played at the venue since 2016, which also was against New Zealand. One common thread running through those two Tests was both lasted five days. While in 2016 India won comfortably, New Zealand batters showed admirable resistance to draw the game in 2021.

While it is likely to be a toil for bowlers, batters could breathe easy and potentially score big in the absence of any tricks from the surface. In the 2021 Test, Shreyas Iyer scored a century and a fifty on debut and Tom Latham put out a rare masterclass from an overseas batter in defence against Indian spinners, scoring two half-centuries.

Additional reporting by Mohammad Isam

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