Colombo Test: Virat Kohli and Dinesh Chandimal views different on grass pitch

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Virat Kohli. Pic/PTI

Team India captain Virat Kohli and his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Chandimal have different views on the surface provided for the second Test starting at Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), Colombo today.

Two days before the match there was a fair bit of grass cover on the pitch. But whatever grass cover it had the previous day has been shaved off extensively on match eve. They even used nose hair pluckers and hard brushes to remove the last layer of grass on the pitch and this process continued for about two hours. It left with both captains making contrasting opinions.

During the pre-match press conference Chandimal said, "The pitch looks dry, and it might assist the spinners from the second day." Kohli on the other hand thought that it is a "great Test match wicket" with something for batsmen and bowlers.

"It looked pretty nice and hard underneath with a good covering of grass. The last time we played here it was a great wicket for Test cricket. Batsmen had to apply themselves to get runs and bowlers were also in the game throughout. It is a wicket that you will get a result on for sure," said Kohli.

When mid-day spoke to a couple of groundsmen involved in shaving off the grass, they said that though the pitch is hard, there is still a lot of grass and they were just removing the wild parts. How pitch behaves, one has to wait and watch, but there is lot of confusion over it.

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