IND vs ENG, Can't Predict How Motera Pitch 'Pink Ball Will Behave': Cheteshwar Pujara

Cricket Image for Can't Predict How Motera Pitch, Pink Ball Will Behave: Cheteshwar Pujara (Cheteshwar Pujara (Image Source: Twitter))

Test experience will not count on a new stadium's new pitch, especially in a one-off Test with the pink ball, said Indian batting mainstay Cheteshwar Pujara on Saturday about the newly re-constructed Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium in Motera here.

No.3 batsman Pujara said that it was tough to predict the behavior of the new pitch at the venue, where the third India-England Test, a day-night affair, starts on February 24, as well as the Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) Test ball, which came into sharp focus for its quality in the first Test in Chennai.

The four-Test series is tied 1-1 and a place in the World Test Championship final at stake for India. This will be India's third pink-ball Test and the first since the first Test in Australia at Adelaide in December when they were shot out for 36 in the second innings.

"Even I have played so many Test matches, But with pink even I don't have that much experience. I don't think experience matters a lot when you are playing the one-off game in a Test series with the pink ball," Pujara told the media on Saturday.

"It is a new stadium, a new pitch. Once we play more games, we will get to know the pitch. We still have three-four days before the Test begins and a lot could change during that. It is pretty difficult to predict with the pink ball game. We are playing with the pink ball."

"It is difficult to assess and judge before the match begins because you are expecting something and it turns out something else with the pink ball. [We] would try and keep things simple as players and not worry about the pitch," said Pujara.

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