Rajkot: The pitch prepared for India's first of seven ODIs against England, to be held at the Madhavrao Scindia Stadium here on November 14, is expected to assist seam bowlers initially, according to the BCCI's West Zone curator-in-charge, Dhiraj Parsana.
"The pitch will assist pace bowlers for the first one to one-and-a-half hours as we have left some grass on it and there would be some sweating under the covers before the 9 am start.
"We have tried to see that there's good carry for the bowlers throughout. If I was India captain I would field first on winning the toss as the team has the bowlers to exploit the conditions in the first hour or so," the former Test left-arm bowler said on Wednesday.
"It would be good for the strokemakers too as more shots can be played on the back foot rather than when they are forced to play on the front foot on wickets that afford only knee-high bounce," he added.
If Parsana, who has overseen the wicket preparation by ground curator Rasik Makwana, is proved right then India look certain to rue the absence of young pacer Ishant Sharma, who was ruled out of the match to give him time to recover from his ankle sprain.
The lanky bowler is here with the team and also took part in the optional net session, skipped by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, speedster Zaheer Khan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who reached here from Nagpur after defeating Australia in the Test series.
Sharma, man of the series in the recently concluded Tests, moved gingerly on the field and just helped out other players in catching practice.
A team source indicated that even if Sharma had not been nursing an ankle sprain he would not have taken part in the first match since he had bowled a lot of overs in the fourth and final Test against Australia which India won by 172 runs.
"He had bowled a lot of overs at Nagpur and would not have played in this match," the source said.
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