The clash between IPL teams and the pitch curator has now taken center stage at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Following a 6-wicket loss to the Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) mentor Dinesh Karthik didn’t hold back in expressing his dissatisfaction with the pitch. After the match, he made it clear that this wasn’t the kind of surface his players had hoped for.
In a post-match press conference on Thursday, Karthik explained that the curator had been told to prepare a pitch that would be favorable for batters, especially for the first two matches. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite happen. “The pitch was more difficult to play on than we expected, he said. “We specifically asked for good batting conditions, but it felt tricky and challenging.”
Karthik pointed out that in T20 cricket, high scores mean more excitement for fans and better ratings for broadcasters. “Everyone enjoys watching boundaries,” he added. “But in our first two games, we ended up with pitches that made it tough for the batters. It’s been a real struggle to put together good scoring opportunities on this surface.”
He admitted that the pitch had not supported the batting side at all. “It’s definitely not a batter-friendly pitch, and that’s how it has been for both games we’ve played here so far. We didn’t expect such conditions at our home ground.
Looking ahead, Karthik mentioned that he plans to have a discussion with the curator about the pitch conditions in the future. There have been moments when players struggled to stay at the crease, and it’s been tough to rotate the strike. Big hits haven’t been easy either, so we’ve had to be careful and not just go all out swinging,” he explained. “But this is T20, so hitting some big shots is part of the game, and that’s led to a few of our players getting out.”
In closing, he assured that a conversation with the curator was on the cards. “We trust him to do his job. We just want to make sure the conditions are right for our team, and we’ll do our best to adapt to what we have.”
