India not worried by pitch factor: skipper

The Gabba, with a fair sprinkling of grass, posing the toughest challenge for the Indian batsmen would be an obvious conclusion but skipper MS Dhoni saw a silver lining in that. And it’s not without a reason.

India have registered some of their finest away Test wins in the recent past on surfaces where they were expected to capitulate without a fight. They were victorious at Perth (2008), Durban (2010) and Lord’s (2014) and came close to winning in Johannesburg (2013) and Wellington.  

“More often than not I prefer wickets that are on the greener side,” said Dhoni here on Tuesday, the eve of the second Test. “The reason being our bowlers become muKch more effective and the batsmen they will have to formulate a way to score runs on that kind of wicket. But if you see the stats we have done well on the wickets that have helped the fast bowlers.

It makes our job slightly easier to get the opposition batsmen out. In the last 2-3 series we have been in position to win Test matches but we have not really been able to do that. It is a matter of time because with a bit more experience and bit more time this team has the talent to go that extra step,” he explained.

While ruling out Ravindra Jadeja, who had impinged his left shoulder, Dhoni shed a light on the surface.  “I feel there will be something extra for the bowlers, especially the faster ones. 

It seems quite hard and the role of spinners will be slightly less but as the game progresses because of the foot marks, Mitchell (Johnson) bowling left-arm over, there will be something for off-spinners.”

Returning to action after more than a month, Dhoni said the rest had done wonders for him. “The rest was very important for me because I had suffered the injury in England series.

I felt that the injury might settle while I was playing but when I played Champions League T20 and ODIs (against West Indies) after coming back I saw it was getting worse with time.

It was an important call at that time because this series is very important for me and after this we have the World Cup,” he remarked.