The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) found itself in hot water before the India vs. New Zealand ODI World Cup semi-final match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday, November 15. The BCCI was accused of altering the scheduled surface. For the high-profile match, the BCCI chose to utilize an old pitch rather than a “fresh pitch” sanctioned by ICC pitch specialist Andy Atkinson, according to a Daily Mail story. Former captains of the Indian team, Sunil Gavaskar and Michael Vaughan, shared their thoughts on the subject.
As the pitch is available to all teams, I don’t think there needs to be a lot of debate over what this pitch will or won’t do. This Indian team is definitely capable of managing any surface, in my opinion. You’ve already witnessed that in the competition. Additionally, if the pitch is drier—which it probably is because the rains have stopped— Therefore, there won’t even be a trace of wetness. Indeed, there will be one in which there may or may not be a small amount of spin. However, Sunil Gavaskar told India Today, “I don’t think there should be too much of a problem because the Mumbai pitch is generally very good for batting.”
“I don’t think there would be much of a problem with the pitch given the caliber of bowlers we have who have bowled exceptionally well, whether bowling first or second. This usually happens, I believe, the night before a game when you have nothing to write about and you attempt to write something because you want to fill your columns and you want to speak about pitches and things like that. It makes no difference to me. They converse without a doubt about whether the pitch changes after the toss. However, the 74-year-old continued, “I don’t think any noise should be made at all if the pitch is the same before the toss.
It was on his official ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) handle that Michael Vaughan said the semi-final ought to be played on a new field.
“New ground should be used for a World Cup semifinal. The former England captain wrote on X, “It’s as easy as that.
It is necessary to acknowledge that this conflict has somewhat overshadowed the intriguing semifinal match between two of the top cricket teams.
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