"Lost the World Cup final due to your pitch obsession.."- Aakash Chopra to Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra has warned the Indian think tank against preparing rank turners for the upcoming Test series against England. The first Test starts in Hyderabad on January 25.

Chopra cited the example of the dry pitch for the World Cup final that went against India in the big finale. The Ahmedabad pitch curators prepared a dry wicket that got an average rating despite Travis Head scoring a match-winning hundred.

Chopra on his YouTube channel spoke about what kind of pitch should be prepared for the first Test. He warned Team Indianot to prepare rank turners but prepare a result-oriented pitch instead.

“The biggest question ahead of the series is should rank turners be made? I am saying and have been saying for a long time – you lost the World Cup final also due to your obsession with the pitch. Preparing a pitch favouring you cost you the finals,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

“You might say this is a different format. It’s not about the format but the habit. You become complacent. Just give one instruction to the curator – make a pitch that yields a result. It shouldn’t be a road-like pitch,” Chopra further added.

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Scales Are Tilted Towards India: Aakash Chopra

India have four spinners in their squad Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel. England also have three spinners Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed, and the uncapped spinner Tom Hartley.

They also had Shoaib Bashir, another spinner but he was ruled out of the first Test with visa-related issues. Chopra spoke about the spinners in both teams and said that India playing at home will be the favorite team given their spinners are much more experienced compared to England’s.

“The scales are obviously tilted towards India and they will only win this series. The question is whether it would be 4-0, 5-0 or 4-1. However, which match will they (England) win and how will they take 20 wickets because the spin attack is extremely weak?” Chopra said.

He concluded by saying that if India does not prepare rank-turners their batting unit can score 500-plus runs at least thrice in the series which will put them in a good position to win the Test series.

“I don’t see any might in the spin bowling. So, if you don’t make turning pitches, you can score 500 runs against them at least thrice over the course of the series and maybe more. I feel you will win this series easily,” concluded the former India cricketer.

India and England have both announced their squads for the Test series. India have announced their squads for the first two Tests. Virat Kohli is unavailable for the first two Tests due to personal reasons. Rajat Patidar has been named as his replacement. For England, Harry Brook has pulled out of the series due to personal reasons, and also Bashir is ruled out.

India are placed second heading into this series on the WTC points table while England are placed eight below teams like West Indies, Pakistan, and even Bangladesh. England lost their last two Test series they played in India.

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