It was at Old Trafford in Manchester, the venue for India’s fourth Test against England next week, that Shane Warne had bowled the ball of the century 32 years back to take out a bewildered Mike Gatting. He had ripped out that snorter from the Warwick Road End, but India won’t be be able to bowl from that end in the next Test.
Around a decade back, the pitch was moved 90 degrees from its east-west sitting to north-south direction. The old east-west axis, established in the 1850s, used to pose the batsmen with a unique problem in the evenings of getting blinded by the setting sun. County matches were even stopped due to the blinding sun. When the pitch was turned around, Old Trafford lost out both Warwick Road End and the Stretford End.
Ever since that turnaround of the pitches though, the tracks have been more or less played flat. In a Sky Sports podcast, Mike Atherton said he spoke to James Anderson about the pitches on offer this season. Incidentally, Old Trafford has one end now named after James Anderson.
“I had a chat with Jimmy (James Anderson) who said the pitches have been flat. Since they turned around the pitches, they haven’t had the pace. There is a couple of pitches in the end some zing but the middle, the televised pitches are flat flat this season’,” Atherton said.
Atherton further reckoned that India should think about playing Kuldeep Yadav, and even think about playing three spinners. “I think wrist spin goes well on those circumstances.
“If Kuldeep is going to play Trafford is the place. I was wondering if they could go with Bumrah and Siraj and play their three spinners in Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep. Just don’t know about the forecast, there is the other thing, if its cooler and showery, then fast bowlers come into picture.”
His co-host of the podcast Nasser Hussain listed out the strong England tail for the fourth Test. “Liam Dawson at 8, Gus Atkinson at 9 if he comes in, Brydon Carse at 10 and Jofra Archer at 11.”
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Apart from Warne’s ball of century and the dramatic 2005 game against Australia, Old Trafford has thrown up moments like Jim Laker’s 19 wickets for England against Australia in the 1956 Ashes Test.
