Indian bowlers endured a frustrating play on Day 3 of the ongoing second Test match against West Indies at Trinidad's Queen's Park Oval on Saturday, July 22. West Indies managed to add only 143 runs from 67 overs more to take the total to 229/5 on a rain-hit day as the pitch turned out flat for the batters and too slow for the bowlers.
Indian bowlers, both pacers and spinners, struggled to replicate their heroics from the first Test in Dominica at Trinidad's slow pitch. There was no real movement on the ball for the pacers while the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had to sweat it out to turn the ball for the wickets.
India's bowling coach and former cricketer Paras Mhambrey was critical about Trinidad's pitch after Day 3's play which he termed as 'flat'. He said that it will be a real challenge for Indian bowlers to bowl out West Indies' first innings and added that it will be a lot of hard work for the bowlers.
"The wicket should be sporting, where all departments have an opportunity - whether it's batting or bowling. If you go to either extreme... Dominica was turning a bit and we could use that wicket better given the bowlers we had," Mhambrey told broadcasters.
"On this wicket, it will be quite a challenge to pick 20 wickets. The first challenge would be to bowl them out in the first innings and then see at what stage the game is at. Then we'll reassess what to do in the second innings. These wickets are challenging and will be a lot of hard work for the bowlers. Wickets shouldn't be so flat," he added.
Jadeja gave India a breakthrough with Tagenarine Chanderpaul's wicket in the 35th over and Ashwin picked Kraigg Brathwaite's valuable wicket who scored 75 off 235.
Debutant Mukesh Kumar bowled only 14 overs across two days but picked another debutant Kirk McKenzie's wicket to kick off his international career. Mhambrey praised Mukesh and said that the pacer put everything behind the ball despite adverse conditions for the pacers.
"I think he bowled very well. Given the conditions and the way he has gone about putting everything behind the ball that is very heartening to see and that is what is expected from him and from the team management this is what we wanted. Just to give his best and this is what he has done," Mhambrey added.
