The pitches have grabbed all the focus in the first 14 games of IPL 2025. KKR takes on SRH in match 15 of the season with all the focus set to be on the pitch again. It was KKR who first argued with the pitch curator after he reportedly denied them a spin-friendly track based on home advantage.
Zaheer Khan too expressed his displeasure at how the Lucknow track was prepared by their curator. He said that he felt that the pitch was prepared by the Punjab Kings curator.
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Every Team Should Have The Right To Decide The Kind Of Surface: Aakash Chopra
With the Eden pitch once again hogging the limelight on Thursday, Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar, in a panel discussion with ESPNCricinfo, debated whether IPL teams should be handed a home advantage in terms of the pitch they play on.
Aakash Chopra voiced his concern regarding the same. He said that the home team can actually demand the kind of pitch that they want as they are playing at home and know the importance of winning all seven matches at the home venue. He further said that the pitch is the most important component when it comes to the subject of home advantage.
"I feel every home team should have the right to decide the kind of surface that they want," Chopra said on ESPNcricinfo's IPL show, Time Out. "They should demand the surface, and they should get it, is what I feel, because home advantage is real, and that comes in only two forms: one is the surface that you choose and the second is the crowd support that is there. Other than that it's an away game. The paramount thing is the surface they are going to play on - crowd might still be secondary. If you take away the pitch, I think whole plans completely derail" said Chopra.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Bangar, who was the other expert on the panel, said that the BCCI would like to have some control over the pitch so that the games do not become too lopsided. He said that giving the entire control to the owners or teams might make them do exactly that.
"I think still BCCI would like to have a little bit of control over it, and maintain the characteristics of a particular surface. If you totally give it to the hands of the franchise, you do not really want the game to be too lopsided as well, so I'm of the opinion [of having] a little bit of uniformity wherein not having too much of a say for the home side, still there is enough variety in terms of the vast nature of our country wherein cricket is played all across the nation, in itself has variations in terms of red soil, black soil and all of that. I'm of the opinion that a little bit of direction or guideline is always better" Bangar said.
Interestingly, Zaheer Khan's comments came on the back of LSG losing their first home game to Punjab Kings. The Eden curator, Sujan Mukherjee, also made a U-turn on his comments after previously denying Ajinkya Rahane a spinning track that he wanted for the home games. With KKR hosting SRH tonight at Eden Gardens, how the pitch plays out will be an interesting observation.
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