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India v/s Sri Lanka | Pitch report: It's not all green in Orange city

Unlike Kolkata, Nagpur track will have a tinge of grass and cracks on it where spinners might come into play

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Ravichandran Ashwin (R) and Ravindra Jadeja during practice in Nagpur on Wednesday
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Many were debating about the timing of India's declaration in the first Test that concluded in an exciting draw in Kolkata on Monday despite more than 150 overs being lost on the first two days alone due to rain.

They said that Virat Kohli should have declared well before reaching his century and that India would have got extra time to bowl out Sri Lanka. But, the fact of the matter is that the Indian dressing room was not so confident of defending anything around 170 and that things would have gone out of their hand had Sri Lankan batsmen managed some boundaries through edges and the gaps that the momentum would have been with the visitors'.

The moment Kohli reached his 18th Test hundred, and 50th at the international level, the mood in the dressing room was upbeat. From a not-so-confident bunch of players who were trying to play for a draw, Kohli's century lifted the dressing room spirits so much so that the bowlers got that extra firepower to raise their performances and went for the kill, reducing Sri Lanka, in pursuit of 231 target, to 75/7 before bad light came to the tourists' rescue.

It was with this sky-high confidence that Kohli and Co. arrived in this Orange City on Tuesday to try and force a result and take the lead in the second and penultimate Test starting on Friday at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium here.

The Indians, who had an optional nets on Wednesday afternoon – Kohli, Rohit Sharma, pacers Md Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma took a break – were first greeted with the pitch under cover. But, when the cover was lifted, there was a grass covering on it but not as much as to prompt the teams to play three pacers like in Kolkata the previous week.

If those who had a look at the pitch were to be believed, there are some prominent cracks already on it to get the think-tanks of both the sides contemplating playing an additional spinner and making the most of it. The cracks, though, would not be as dangerous from the first day as to force a result inside three days as was the case in the last Test played here in November 2015 against South Africa, following which the International Cricket Council referee Jeff Crowe from New Zealand rated this pitch "poor".

Traditionally, Nagpur has been a spin-friendly pitch in the five Tests played at the stadium since 2008. In all, 94 wickets have gone to the spinners as against 58 taken by the speedsters. The pitch has been relaid recently and the curator Pravin Hingnikar spent almost the entire day supervising the preparation of the pitch.

It is a surface that India's Ravichandran Ashwin, who went wicketless in Kolkata – the first instance in a home Test for him – will relish bowling on and look to take the eight wickets needed to reach 300 in his career. Ashwin, after all, took 12 wickets the last time he played a Test at this venue 24 months ago against the Proteas.

It is also a Test that will see 51-Test veteran opener Murali Vijay make a comeback into this format after missing the Sri Lanka tour due to injury and was overlooked for the first Test this series. The absence of Shikhar Dhawan due to "personal reasons" for this Test will mean Vijay opening with KL Rahul.

DID YOU KNOW?

Out of the five Tests played at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur, three have been played in the month of November – 2008 against Australia, 2010 against New Zealand and 2015 against South Africa. India have won all three of them. The other two – February 2010 against South Africa and December 2012 – resulted in an India loss and a draw, respectively.

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