One of the most famous or infamous contests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy dates back to Australia’s 2004 tour of India when they won what they considered their final frontier. The tourists returned home with a 2-1 win in the four-match series thanks to victories in Bengaluru and Nagpur before India pulled one back in Mumbai.
Aside from the triumph, what those who witnessed the historic series clearly remember is the build up to the Nagpur Test and its fallout.
Teams, when playing at home, prepare pitches to suit their strengths. So has been the case with India who are known to dish out spin-friendly tracks to aid their spinners.
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However, Kishore Pradhan, the curator for the Nagpur pitch in 2004, thought differently. He prepared a bouncy track but once the then captain Sourav Ganguly had a look at it, he was left unimpressed.
“Once (Sourav) Ganguly saw the pitch, he thought I prepared it on my own,” Pradhan told The New Indian Express. “He spoke to me explaining the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. He then met the then VCA president Shashank Manohar. I also told him that the surface has been prepared in consultation with the VCA chief and coach K Jayantilal. ‘This is the wicket we have prepared and you have to play on it’, I tried explaining to Ganguly.”
Interestingly, Ganguly pulled out of the contest citing an injury as did Harbhajan Singh, the offspinner.
As it turned out, Australia were bowled out for 398 in their first innings and in reply, India were skittled for 185 in 91.5 overs with Jason Gillespie picking a five-for.
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Australia again performed well with the bat in their second dig as well and this time declared on 329/5. Their pace trio of Gillespie, Glenn McGrath and Michael Kasprowicz shared eight wickets to bowl out India for 200 runs and record a massive 342-run win.
Pradhan maintains that Indian team lost the battle in the mind and not because of the pitch. “There were no demons on the pitch. It was all about applying yourself but unfortunately, our batters lost the battle in the mind even before the start of the contest,” he said.
While a retired Pradhan is far removed from Vidarbha Cricket Association now, he says should he be given an opportunity to prepare the pitch again, he won’t change a thing.
“If given an opportunity, I will lay out the same wicket. I always wanted to prepare pacy and bouncy wickets. How else our batters will learn to play on them? These days, it’s the opposite as they can now play on fast wickets but tend to struggle on spinning tracks. Mr G Kasturirangan, the then chairman of the BCCI grounds and pitches committee, praised me for the wicket,” Pradhan said.
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