New Delhi, October 10, 2023 : On the eve of the game, England skipper Jos Buttler had critiqued the HPCA Stadium outfield as poor, advising his players to be cautious while fielding and bowling.
With all the talks around the England-Bangladesh World Cup game in Dharamsala being around the patchy outfield, late night rains have added doubts over the surface being match ready on Tuesday.
Even though the skies have cleared out and there’s sun above, the ground staff have been occupied by sprinkling dry grass over the dusty patches which look muddy less than a couple of hours before the scheduled start of the game. Over a dozen ground staff workers have taken to working on the bowlers’ run up area either side of the wicket at the college end.
On the eve of the game, England skipper Jos Buttler had critiqued the HPCA Stadium outfield as poor, advising his players to be cautious while fielding and bowling.
“It goes against everything you want to be as a team. You want to dive through a row of houses to save a run. That’s obviously not ideal, the way the surface is, the outfield. We won’t use it as an excuse but it’s certainly going to hold yourself back from a place you want to be as a team,” he’d said.according to the reports published in indianexpress.com
The outfield at the venue was brought under the scanner after both the Afghanistan and Bangladesh team slipped in their attempts to run after the ball in the first game at this venue. Afghanistan’s coach Jonathan Trott would term Mujeeb Ur Rahman as ‘lucky’ to have escaped a serious injury during his diving attempt in the deep that saw his knee get stuck.
