Greenfield International Stadium Thiruvananthapuram pitch report: India will face the Proteas in a final bilateral series before World Cup.
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With an eye on their death bowling woes in particular, which has caused them headaches since the Asia Cup, team India will take on South Africa in a three-match T20I series, with the first match to take place at the Greenfield International Stadium, in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) on September 28.
The return back of Harshal Patel and Jasprit Bumrah after recovering from their respective injuries, did act as a sigh of relief for the team management and skipper Rohit Sharma. But, the duo came up with unimpressive performances, to say the least, during the recently concluded three-match T20I series against the Aussies.
While Patel leaked 49 runs in his four-Over spell during the first T20I, Bumrah registered his most expensive spell ever in the format, giving away 50 runs during the final T20I, while not even getting off-the-mark in the wickets column.
While Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who continues to leak runs in the death, will be out of action for the series, the squad will be marked with the return back of Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh.
Having seen the death bowling it seems we need more. Bhuvi at the death- 18-20- isn’t working. And this is a pattern. Arshdeep can be a better option on form. Bumrah will get better with match time. So think Arshdeep needs a look in for Bhuvi or Bhuvi needs to finish before 15.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) September 25, 2022
Greenfield International Stadium Thiruvananthapuram pitch report
The stadium has hosted only a couple of T20Is till date, with the last one taking place in December 2019, during which India prevailed against the West Indies by eight wickets.
The average score across the 16 T20 matches at this venue from 2017-2019 stands at 141.2 runs, with the 10 overall teams not managing to surpass the 200-run mark even once in this two-year period.
However, with the pitches during the recently concluded home T20I series against Australia turning out to be a batting paradise, expect the fresh pitch in Thiruvananthapuram to be nothing different as well.
Having said that, given the historical numbers on record across the 16 T20 matches here, the batters do generally struggle to get going, especially during the latter half of the match.
