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Greenish pitch in Bangladesh surprises Kiwis
SPORTS REPORTER
Having toured Bangladesh twice in the last three years, the New Zealand team management had a fair idea about what to expect when they came here to play a two-Test series against the hosts.
In fact, most teams tour Bangladesh with a similar presumption -- that of being welcomed on slow and low surfaces.
On Thursday, however, in their first training session in Sylhet, the Kiwis were taken by surprise by the one thing they expected they wouldn’t be seeing during their entire stay in Bangladesh -- the green tinge on the pitch.
“Pitches were a little greener than we thought they were going to be. But it spun, nonetheless,” said Kiwi all-rounder Glenn Philips after their training session.
Philips, who last came to Bangladesh in 2016 with the Under-19 team, was clearly befuddled by the extra grass on the practice pitches as he brought it up for a second time in his three-minute-long interaction with the media.
“They were a little bit greener than we thought we were potentially going to come up against. But at the end of the day, we still have four days here before the first game [in order to] get everything all lined up and ready for the first game,” he added.
Phillips remain the only off-spinner in their side and he was also confident of troubling a left-hander heavy Bangladesh batting line-up.
“With the line of Bangladesh including a few lefties, I think I will be able to apply pressure and take the ball away from bat while others bring it in,” Phillips added.
The Sylhet International Cricket Stadium -- the venue for the first Test -- is considered as one of the more sporting pitches in Bangladesh.
The Black Caps are no strangers to playing in the country, having played 28 matches here against the Tigers across three formats, but this is going to be their first outing in Sylhet.
New Zealand have spent most of their time in the capital while touring Bangladesh, as they have faced the hosts 19 times at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
Like most cricket teams outside of Asia, New Zealand mostly struggled at the Tigers’ ‘home of cricket’ in Mirpur -- a venue that is notorious for producing low and slow pitches.
The Tigers, with the help of their brigade of finger spinners, capitalised on this weakness and notched up notable bi-lateral series triumphs over the Kiwis -- the 4-0 ‘Bangla Wash’ in 2010, and the 3-2 Twenty20 series in 2021, their only series win over the Kiwis in the shortest format.
The New Zealand team last toured Bangladesh for three ODIs in September, which was both team’s last bilateral engagement before the World Cup in India.
All three matches of that series were played in Miprur, but the Tigers ended up on the wrong side of a 2-0 series defeat with one game producing no result.
Playing at their favourite hunting ground failed to give the Tigers the boost they had been hoping for and perhaps provided a glimpse of what had been awaiting the Tigers in the World Cup -- an eighth-place finish, including a convincing defeat to the Netherlands, the only associate nation in the tournament.
Perhaps to atone for their past mistake, the board decided to hold the first Test of the forthcoming series in Sylhet which is set to be both team’s first match in the current cycle of the ICC Test Championship.
But given Bangladesh’s tendency to doctor pitches to aid their spinners, there is no guarantee that the wicket in the Sylhet Test will remain green like the practice wickets.
That would be another surprise for the Kiwis, just not as pleasant as the first one.