Arthur Crabtree wrote:I think a minimum is that catches should carry. But that wouldn't pass on some Indian pitches. In the series England won in India, there was no point having slips in Nagpur and Ahmedabad because the ball wouldn't carry. It's justifiable in that it asks different skills of the players (though a whole series of it would be monotonous) but it's bad in that it doesn't punish the batters' mistakes.
only nagpur was slow in that series, Ahmedabad wasn't slow well not slow for an indian standard pitch, was slow for what england were doing but not slow if you had spinners.
in India in pace terms you need the edges to the spinners carrying and also quick enough so the spinner take wickets through mistake.
Nagpur was turning the same amount as the other 3 but the wicket was so slow any decent batsman won't get out.
Ahmedabad looked quick when india were taking wicket, but slow enough when their were scoring runs or when Cook/Prior started scoring.
weirdly enough was probably the pitch india wanted in that seires in all the games, got carried away in Mumbai/Kolkata with the pace/bounce of the wicket.
India will never have pace quick enough for the seam bowlers to have loads of slips, possibly in Punjab and few grounds in the north and possibly Mumbai but lets be honest India will never produce a deck that quick for seam bowlers to have slips, but then the catching position in india are not the slips but mid off and mid ons, if anything the attacking fields Anderson sets are scary he literally won't concede runs and looks threatening with reverse swing.
But if you asking for pace in the indian wickets it should be noted Rank turners and 2-3 day results will be the norm, it is impossible to produce a deck in india with good pace and still have the game last 5 days, without it being a 500-500 game.
