ICC World T20: Batting-friendly track for the India-New Zealand game in Nagpur

India will start their T20 World Cup campaign against New Zealand on March 15 at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. According to PTI sources, the track in Nagpur will be batting-friendly. The pitch in Nagpur came under huge scrutiny when it was given a “poor” rating by the match referee Jeff Crowe after the third India-South Africa test match in November.

India won the test match inside three days and it was the Indian spinners who wrecked havoc. Ravichandran Ashwin was the chief architect of the win with his match-winning spell of 12 for 98. Other spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra also gave him good support to script a win for India.

However, the International Cricket Council later announced that the stadium has been given an official warning under the ICC's Pitch Monitoring process following the third Test held in November 2015. ICC gave its verdict after agreeing to the match referee’s assessment.

According to Crowe, the pitch didn’t allow a fair contest between bat and ball.The finding was made by ICC General Manager Cricket, Geoff Allardice, and ICC chief match referee, Ranjan Madugalle, after watching footage of the match, reviewing the post-match reports from Crowe and considering the response provided by the BCCI.

The track is oriented towards batsmen

However, the upcoming India-New Zealand T20 game would see a track which is oriented towards batsmen, according to the PTI sources.

Ranjan Madugalle will be the match referee for the India-New Zealand game while the umpires appointed for it are Richard Illingworth, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus and Nigel Llong.

"The centre square will be used for the game," the sources said

Ticket prices have been kept in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 7,500 for most of the stands barring seats in the hospitality box costing Rs 12,500 for viewing the matches from over the sight-screen, along with enjoying other facilities, the sources said.

India last played a T20I on this ground against Sri Lanka in 2009. India lost the game by 29 runs. Sri Lanka batting first put up a huge total of 215 on the board with Kumar Sangakkara scoring a stroke-filled 78 off 37 balls. India, in reply, could only manage 186 runs as the Sri Lankan bowlers did their job efficiently.

Till date, 7 T20Is have been played on this ground. In those seven games, the team batting first has won the match 5 times. So whichever team wins the toss, going by the trend, might opt to bat first on a track which will assist the batsmen.

The battle between India and New Zealand will surely be an exciting one. Both teams have big hitters who will love the conditions and t will be a challenging task for the bowlers from both sides.