Three left-arm spinners — Morkel drops big enough hint

Shamik Chakrabarty, Galle

Someone in the know confirmed that the Galle pitch did have a grass cut on Wednesday. It’s never the “green, green grass of home” in Sri Lanka, but a day ago, the surface had a tinge of green. Two days before the start of the first Test, it’s pretty brownish. The curators watered the 22 yards yesterday. Hosepipes were active again today, around 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

The hosts aren’t laying out a Bunsen for the series opener. Far from it. Come Saturday, the pitch is expected to be good for batting to start with. Morne Morkel, India’s bowling coach, concurred.

“For sure, I think it’s a good-looking surface to the eye,” he told reporters. “And yeah, I’ll be slightly surprised if it goes the other way. Traditionally, you know, at this venue, the first two days belong to the batting side, or your first innings basically. So yeah, I think that’s going to be important to whatever happens with the toss. If you bat first, make sure you go big, and if you bowl first, get the ball in the right area. So those disciplines are going to be important.”

There’s absolutely no chance that India will play four spinners on this deck. In any case, four spinners are always one too many, irrespective of the conditions. Going by India’s nets session, three fast bowlers — Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar — featuring in the playing XI is an outside chance.

India going with three left-arm spinners appears most likely, and Morkel dropped a big enough hint that it could be the team’s go-to choice for the first Test.

“Yeah, look, I mean Kuldeep (Yadav) is there, he is an attacking sort of bowler for us,” he said. “His experience and class we can’t look past. So yeah, I think for us they’re all different in their way. One turns (the ball) a bit more, one is slightly more accurate. I don’t think it’s a massive concern for us. It’s just how Shubman (Gill) is going to use those guys at certain times.”

Ravindra Jadeja, when he is in the squad, is an automatic pick. Manav Suthar had a six-for on his Test debut against Afghanistan and looked impressive in the tour game in Sri Lanka. Kuldeep is a left-arm wrist-spinner. Irrespective of the variety, however, a combination of three left-arm spinners in the XI has happened only once in the 94 years of Indian Test cricket — against South Africa at Eden Gardens last year. In Galle, it could well be horses for courses again.