Former Indian cricketer and cricket analyst Wasim Jaffer has asserted that rank turners should be avoided on Indian pitches during home Test matches and instead should have more balanced surfaces.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Jaffer reckoned that the Indian batters are failing to tackle spin on rank turners. Notably, India suffered home series whitewashes to South Africa and New Zealand.
“I think first of all, we should avoid giving rank turners. Because they didn’t give us good results. Whether it was against New Zealand or South Africa. We made rank turners against them but it cost us in turn. So I think we should play on good wickets, where, from the third day, the ball starts spinning. I think we should make that kind of pitch. Otherwise, we put a lot of pressure on our batters, and we also bring their bowlers into the game. If the ball is spinning from the first day, then I think we put pressure on ourselves. And our batters, we don’t have the same technique as the previous batters did. Making a safer wicket is better,” Jaffer said on his YouTube channel.
“It’s a bit of a problem because these days, batters don’t practice much with the red-ball. There are a lot of matches in a year, and they play with white-ball, so they cannot give enough time to red-ball. And there are three different formats. Indian cricketers, who play in all three formats, they have very little time,” he added.
After India’s tour of New Zealand later this year, Australia will visit India for a five-match Test series in January and February 2027 as part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
