Nagpur pitch in 2004: Sourav Ganguly did not play the match on the pretext of injury. A four-match Test series will be played between India and Australia (IND vs AUS Test) from Thursday 9 February.

Which both the teams have geared up, and the players are practicing hard. This series against Australia will be important for Rohit Sharma’s captaincy career and for India.

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The first Test will be played at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur, for which the pitch has been prepared according to the Indian team, but the pitch has been changed at the behest of head coach Rahul Dravid.

Dravid changed the Pitch of VCA Stadium:-

In fact, it is being said that the pitch prepared by the Vidarbha Cricket Association was not liked by Team India’s head coach Rahul Dravid.

Due to this, he gave instructions to prepare the pitch for the test. At the same time, after the order of the coach, Vidarbha Cricket Association had to make many major changes in the pitch and site screen of the stadium as soon as possible and the pitch has been changed before the Nagpur Test.

Uproar over Nagpur Pitch in 2004

However, instructions to change this pitch of Nagpur have not been given for the first time, but earlier in the year 2004, there was a ruckus regarding this pitch.

In 2004, on this pitch of Nagpur, the captaincy of Team India was in the hands of Sourav Ganguly, during that time Team India had to play against Australia only.

Ganguly left the match due to differences:-

But in this match, Ganguly did not play the match on the pretext of injury. While there were reports that Ganguly left the match due to differences with former coach Greg Chappell, former Nagpur curator Kishor Pradhan told a different story.

Pradhan had claimed that Ganguly had given instructions to change the pitch. After seeing the green pitch for the Nagpur Test at that time.

Ganguly had asked to change the pitch considering the strength and weakness of both teams but I said that the pitch cannot be changed after which he did not play the match due to injury.

Nagpur Pitch was ‘lucky’ for Ashwin:-

Significantly, during that time the visiting team won the match by 342 runs. And 23 out of 35 wickets in the match were taken by the fast bowlers. However, India’s performance on home pitches has always been impressive, mostly dominated by the bowlers.

Read more:-  Captain Rohit Sharma Said A Big Thing On The Nagpur Pitch

India has played 6 Test matches at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Out of which they have won 4, lost 1, and drawn one match. This stadium is famous for R Ashwin. He has played 3 Tests on this pitch in which he has taken 23 wickets.