Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the third Test of the series might not be a five-day affair if the pitch remains green. However, he added that the pitch might not remain as helpful for the seamers throughout the game as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Who will benefit from the pitch we have seen? They are trying to make a slightly green top. Brendon McCullum asked the curator to provide a pitch that has a little life, bounce, and sideways movement. We don’t mind that at all,” Chopra said. “I feel it will be an interesting game because we are standing at 1-1 now, and England, as usual, have started to give a few excuses. Based on the first visuals I have seen, it doesn’t seem like it will be a five-day Test. However, eventually, a pitch plays as per its character.”

However, Aakash Chopra also stated that India would prefer playing on a green-top pitch, remembering their win in the 2014 Lord’s Test.

“If the pitch becomes like that (WTC final), so be it, and if it doesn’t, and it starts as a green top, I remember a match in which Ajinkya (Rahane) scored a hundred. It was a green-top pitch where we got to bat first, and we won that match in the end. Ishant Sharma took seven wickets. Murali Vijay also scored 90-odd in the second innings. We like green-top pitches,” he said.

“So even if Gus Atkinson and Jofra Archer come in, and Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue are potentially left out, England will have to bat well. We don’t mind green-top pitches. We are absolutely okay. We have won those matches where there is more help for bowlers, at least away from home,” Aakash Chopra concluded.