Indian cricket embarks on a new innovation as the nation’s first-ever hybrid pitch was unveiled on the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) stadium in Dharamsala on Monday. The hybrid floor was unveiled in a grand ceremony and the occasion was attended by IPL Chairman Arun Dhumal and different cricket dignitaries together with Paul Taylor, who is an ex-England participant and SIS’s worldwide cricket director.
Hybrid pitches are mixture of natural and artificial fibres
The new kind of hybrid pitches is a mixture of natural turf and artificial fibres. These kinds of pitches have solely 5% of artificial fibres with 95% being the natural turf solely. The artificial fibre will get injected into the natural floor.
These pitches promise to boost the sturdiness and constant playability of matches. This additionally guarantees to scale back the pressure and workload on the bottom workers and also will preserve high quality taking part in circumstances.
“The introduction of hybrid pitches is set to revolutionize cricket in India, following their success in iconic venues like Lord’s and The Oval in England,” stated Dhumal, who hails from Himachal Pradesh.
Notably, Taylor seems to be ahead to extra initiatives in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. “With the ICC’s approval, we’re excited to see the positive impact these pitches will have on the sport, starting with installations in Mumbai and Ahmedabad next,” Taylor stated.
ICC has sanctioned the hybrid pitches for T20s and ODIs and there are plans to make use of them on England’s county cricket grounds.
How are hybrid pitches different from natural ones?
According to Paul Taylor, the work required to renovate a pitch in between video games will get a lot lowered on these surfaces. “The preparation of a hybrid pitch is no different to a absolutely natural pitch.
They’re ready in precisely the identical method.
What you will discover, although, is while you end the sport on them, the quantity of renovation work it is advisable do earlier than the subsequent recreation is massively lowered. So that is the place much less stress is put on the bottom workers. You can play on it as much as thrice longer than what you ordinarily would on a natural turf pitch,” he stated.
The problem will likely be to recreate the different behavioural patterns that we see on a natural floor as the match progresses additional to the hybrid turfs. Taylor stated that the traits will not change essentially and one can management the pitch as per the necessity.
“You can control playing characteristics (on the hybrid pitch) as they don’t change fundamentally. You can control the amount of moisture that goes into the pitch. If you want to play on a dry pitch, you can play on a dry pitch. If you want to leave more grass on, you can do that,” he added.
So will the ball spin? “The ball will spin. What we have actually found anecdotally is that spin bowlers over a period of time will get more bounce out of the hybrid pitch than what they ordinarily would off a natural turf pitch,” he stated.
The taking part in circumstances change over time however Taylor stated the pitch will be managed even when the circumstances will change recreation after recreation. “Yes, the taking part in circumstances nonetheless range over time. But you are still answerable for what kind of works for you on a pitch. So, you may play on a new hybrid pitch for one recreation. And the taking part in traits are barely different. But recreation two, three, 4, 5…the circumstances will change. You can nonetheless management these circumstances,” stated Taylor.
