Team India desperately wanted green and bouncy pitch before the South Africa tour but the country’s diverse soil and climatic conditions prevent the curators from providing the team management with tracks of their choice, said batting coach Sanjay Bangar.

After the green top at the Eden Gardens for the first Test against Sri Lanka, where overcast conditions also played its role, the pitches in Nagpur and Delhi has deceived all and sundry.

When Bangar was asked if Delhi wicket was ideal for preparations or not, he replied, “The nature of surfaces cannot be consistent since we are a diverse country and as we hop from region to region, the nature of the pitch is changed. Even though we wanted to have a wicket with pace and bounce, with a bit of grass cover, the curators can only do as much because it all depends on nature of the soil, which is peculiar (he perhaps meant unique) to a particular region.”

He further elaborated, “You can’t expect a Mumbai wicket to play like a Delhi wicket and a Calcutta wicket to play like a Nagpur wicket. So that’s the beauty of cricket. You may want something but the curator is never able to give you what you want because of peculiar nature of the track and diverse conditions in such a vast country that we live in.”