Transformation Of Chennai Pitch: From Spin Favourite To Pacer's Paradise

Sit back, close your eyes and recollect the great spells at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. The first two reels will be that of two young spinners 바카라� one bespectacled and the other with a turban 바카라� bamboozling the batters like magicians. (More Cricket News)

Narendra Hirwani walked away with a 16-wicket match haul against West Indies in Chennai in 1986, while 15 wickets were added to Harbhajan Singh바카라�s tally in 2001 against Australia.

So, it was quite natural to expect two modern-day greats Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to rip through Bangladesh's batting line-up at Chepauk to keep up with the tradition.

But pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep shared eight wickets among them to meddle with history and expectations.

Such dominance by pacers was unknown at this venue since the late 70s. In 1979, a three-pronged pace attack comprising Kapil Dev, Karsan Ghavri and Dhiraj Parsana took 11 wickets among them in India바카라�s three-wicket win over the mighty West Indians.

Since then, this has always been a spinner바카라�s paradise. But a small wind of change swept through the humid Chepauk earlier this year during the IPL when Chennai Super Kings rolled out a pitch with a tinge of grass against Gujarat Titans.

The CSK trumped GT by 63 runs as Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Deshpande and Mustafizur Rahman dished out good spells, even as accomplished spinners like Jadeja (2-0-15-0) and Rashid Khan (4-0-49-2) ended up with ordinary figures.

바카라�It was a call made by skipper Ruturaj (Gaikwad) in his effort to maximise the resources within the CSK set-up. Anyways, it was a change from the long-standing, set strategy of preparing slow tracks and using spinners to win (under MS Dhoni),바카라� a source, who was familiar with the move, told PTI.

The new red-soil pitch at Chepauk perfectly aligned with the Indian team바카라�s vision to give more practice to their pacers ahead of the all-important tour to Australia.

Having a favourable pitch is one thing, but showing the tactical nous to exploit is another. Bumrah, so expectedly, led the way.

The Indian pace spearhead setting up Bangladesh lower-order batter Taskin Ahmed was a sight to behold.

After keeping Taskin on the edge with a series of deliveries just short of length bumpers, Bumrah rattled the batter바카라�s stumps with a fuller delivery.

It was a magnificent admixture of bowler바카라�s skill 바카라� delivering a telling toe-crusher after using the nature of the track to bowl those unsettling climbers.

Seasoned off-spinner Ashwin, who went wicketless on the day, endorsed the pitch바카라�s character transformation, which was put into good use by Bangladesh pacers Hasan Mahmud and Taskin as well.

바카라�Chepauk is a place that we know. So, it's always special for me to play here. But in the past, when I played in the U-19 matches here, the wickets were always like this.

바카라�It used to be hard red clay, good bounce. I never saw that surface again. So, I'm really glad to see it back,바카라� said Ashwin.

Bangladesh will have to contend with a two-way firing line now when they come out to bat in their second innings.