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The pitch was cleared by ICC independent pitch consultant Andy Atkinson and match referee Javagal Srinath before this match, and was graded as ‘average’ for Bangladesh’s win over Afghanistan despite Jonathan Trott’s comments that Mujibur Rahman was ‘lucky’ to avoid serious injury. When his knee got stuck in the soft sandy grass.
Players from both sides were cautious when playing deep during England’s 137-run win on Tuesday, with some deep players choosing to accompany balls to the boundary rather than diving in and risking injury. England coaches have advised players to be careful deep, despite their usual desire for players to chase every ball to the boundary.
Dharamsala is scheduled to play three more matches in this tournament – Netherlands v South Africa (on October 17), India v New Zealand (October 22) and Australia v New Zealand (October 28) – and Curran suggested the England players are grateful they will not be involved in any Of which.
“It was pretty bad,” Curran said. “We’re very happy to finish that game without any injuries – I think for both teams. That’s very important, and we don’t have to come back here.” Instead, they will travel to Delhi ahead of the match against Afghanistan on Sunday.
Curran played in Dharamsala earlier this year for Punjab Kings, but the condition of the pitch has worsened significantly since then due to rain. “We hope the pitch will improve: it’s not very nice, what happened to him,” he said. “But I thought the wicket was really good. Fortunately, we are all ready, and we will move on to Delhi.”
He confirmed that England players were discouraged from diving: “[The message] It was just ‘be careful’ and I saw that when Bangladesh participated, they were very careful as well. “No one wants to see anyone get hurt and fortunately, there weren’t a lot of balls we had to run after… We’re very happy no one got hurt in the next game.”
Fast bowlers from both sides reported difficult conditions in the warm-up periods, with Reece Topley shortening his side in order to combat the soft turf. “The legs are a little heavier than usual on this pitch for sure,” Topley told Sky Sports. “When you got into the bowl, you barely felt like you got to the crease.
“I actually had to shorten the race distance because I wasn’t covering any distance on each step, to be honest,” he explained. He added: “But it was a unique challenge on this earth, and we responded in the right way. Gus asked us to move on, so we did.”
Taskin Ahmed of Bangladesh said he found the conditions “difficult” underfoot: “The field was soft. It was difficult to run here. Everyone felt we were a little off balance, or slipping in the lead-up to the race. But the conditions were tough.” “It was not under our control, so we can’t make that an excuse: we should have adapted better.”
