Fatullah wicket takes Hathurusingha, Mushfiq by surprise

The newly rolled Fatullah track, which used to be a batting paradise, has taken Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha and captain Mushfiqur Rahim by surprise a day before the start of the one-off Test against India.

Hathurusingha, who has been involved with cricket for over two decades, claims he has never seen such a track before.

“The wicket is hard to predict because I haven’t seen such track before. The surface of the wicket has a lot of trimmed grass - it's unnatural. Because either a wicket has a lot of grass or none at all,” the Sri Lankan said in a press conference after Tuesday’s practice.

Hathurusingha came to Bangladesh as Canada’s coach during the 2011 World Cup. His side had played a warm-up against England in Fatullah then.

The Test against India that starts on Wednesday will officially be his first match at Fatullah as Bangladesh coach. His awe may not come as a surprise but even Mushfiq is having difficulties in reading the pitch.

“Trimmed grass embedded on the surface may be seen in the wickets prepared for one-dayers or T20s, but (I’ve) never seen it in Tests. I have no idea how it will behave in five days. It’s new for me as well,” said the Tigers’ Test captain.

Mushfiq thinks it will assist batsmen as well as spinners.

“As of now it seems, the wicket will favour batsmen in the first two days. Spin will definitely be effective from the first day, may be more useful later. I think it will pit batsmen against spinners.”

Fatullah’s wicket was covered when the Indian team arrived at practice on Tuesday afternoon. Their captain Virat Kohli had a look at the 22-yard stretch on his way to the press conference.

It failed to surprise him.

“(I) just had a look at the wicket. It didn’t look too unnatural. No (implanted) grass, hard wicket. (We) will later have a better look to figure out how much it will crack or if at all it will,” said the Indian skipper.