A Lucknow Pitch Curator was fired for putting up a “Shocker” for the second T20I against New Zealand.

By
finenews247
-
0
137
India VS New Zealand

The curator of Lucknow’s Ekana Cricket Stadium has been fired for creating a “shocker of a surface” for the second T20 International match against New Zealand. The Lucknow wicket was a “shocker,” according to India’s skipper Hardik Pandya, even though his team won the game on Sunday with one ball remaining. India struggled to chase the tiny mark on a twisting track as New Zealand was limited to 99 for eight. Sanjeev Kumar Agarwal, a very skilled curator, has taken over as the new curator after the removal of the previous one. In a month, everything will improve.

“A lot of domestic cricket was already played on all the center wickets ahead of the T20I and the curator should have left one or two strips for an international game. The surface was overused and due to the bad weather, there was not enough (time) to prepare a fresh wicket,” a UPCA source told PTI. Agarwal, who previously created pitches in Bangladesh before being fired in October of last year, has been given the responsibility of turning things right in terms of pitch-building. According to the source, he will collaborate closely with experienced BCCI curator Taposh Chatterjee. On Wednesday, Ahmedabad will host the final T20I of the series.

The surfaces available so far throughout the series have not pleased Hardik. “To be honest, it was a shocker of a wicket. Both the games we have played so far. I don’t mind difficult wickets. I am all up for that, but these two wickets are not made for T20. Somewhere down the line, the curators or the grounds that we are going to play in should make sure they prepare the pitches earlier,” Hardik had said after the six-wicket win in Lucknow.