There are certain chances that Team India might not have to face the kind of bounce they are expecting from the Newlands pitch during the first Test against South Africa on January 5 as the worst drought in many years has made it difficult for the ground staff to prepare a pitch that suits the home team.

According to a report, Newlands has borehole-water supply but groundsman Evan Flint told ESPNcricinfo that things could get tricky. He said, “With the pitch, we’ve been able to carry on watering it, as usual, every day with borehole water. But the outfield, we’ve only watered it twice a week so it’s a little bit drier and maybe not as lush as we would like it.”

Flint further elaborated, “The challenge is that we need to leave live grass on the wicket, thin grass so that there is pace, but we want to make sure the ball doesn’t grip and turn. Ideally, what we need is a little bit of rain in the morning and the sun in the afternoon and I don’t know how many days we will get that for.”

The curator is still hopeful that he can prepare a hard bouncy track, he said, “Everybody is pretty clear on what they want. We have tweaked a few things in terms of trying to get fresh green grass and we are also working on getting the wicket hard, so we’re rolling it, but we have to keep the grass alive at the same time.”