Drop-in pitches will nullify home advantage

The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is being held in the last month of the summer and Australia, in particular, has the nicest weather at this time of the year. March is one of the best months in terms of temperatures, ranging from mid-to-high 20s and we generally get a lot of sunshine. You wouldn't expect too many rain-affected matches.

A talking point will be the nature of the pitches during the latter half of the summer. Normally, there isn't any wear and tear as such in pitches in Australia but because the World Cup is happening at the back-end of the season, one could expect some tired surfaces towards the end. You could reasonably expect deterioration in venues like Adelaide, MCG, or the SCG. I think the Gabba and the WACA will remain unaffected just because of the nature of the soil, the heat and the weather.

We've already had four Tests and a short tri-series being played on these surfaces ahead of the World Cup. The pitches will only be slightly slower and lower. It still won't be like how you get it in the subcontinent, so the Asian teams might still feel slightly uncomfortable in terms of the conditions.

The bounce will still be a factor for teams from the subcontinent. The biggest difference is the level of comfort in conditions they are not used to. If you're batting in foreign conditions, it takes you a bit longer to adjust and it's a question of how long the subcontinent teams will take to adjust. It depends on where they play and if their group matches are in New Zealand where the pitches are lower and slower.

The type of lengths bowlers adopt is also crucial. One of the things the Australian and South African bowlers have worked out is that on bouncy wickets you need to ensure the ball is kept quite full, in order to make use of the swing and get the slips into play. The trap a lot of teams fall into, especially those used to bowling in subcontinental conditions, is that they tend to bowl it shorter, which means that batsmen who are brought up on hard wickets are used to this length are strong on the cut and pull. It's about being patient and not on reverting to a shorter length.

One of the features of this World Cup is the number of drop-in pitches at several venues. Drop-in pitches in Australia tend to be a bit benign. We saw during the four-Test series against India that it was a batting paradise, really well suited to the Indian team and quite close to what they get at home. I think these pitches will matter because it will help teams that don't cope well with the bounce to acclimatise quicker. I think it will nullify the home advantage for a team like Australia.

As for New Zealand, going by my experience of playing there the weather tends to be a lot cooler, the wickets not as hard or bouncy and I have always found New Zealand to be quite good on slower decks. They employ the sweep shot and play spinners quite well. That's one of the reasons why New Zealand could figure quite strongly in this competition.

Certain spinners will have a bigger role to play. One of the trends that has cropped up over the last few years is that batsmen have learnt to score more quickly and employed more shots. Bowlers who turn the ball away from the batsman will benefit. Generally, most teams have predominantly more right-handers so teams with good legspinners or orthodox left-arm spinners will have some advantage. Having said that, we are four years on from the last World Cup and with it, T20 cricket too has evolved. Batsmen are increasingly employing certain shots against spinners, like the loft over cover and the reverse sweep. On the one hand, you have left-arm spinners playing a bigger role but the batsmen are used to finding ways to score off these bowlers.

Pitches like the ones in Sydney tend to be spinner-friendly, giving captains the option of playing more than one specialist spinner but it's always a bit of a gamble particularly when the pitch doesn't offer much turn. It will only be adopted when there is turn for sure and not if the pitch is merely playing slow and low. Nowadays teams tend to play one specialist spinner and a spinning allrounder. India have Ravindra Jadeja and they employ that strategy pretty well.

Another challenge facing teams as far as conditions are concerned is adjusting to grounds with different sizes, particularly the larger ones in Australia. It changes the nature of how you score. It means you may not score too many boundaries but teams that are good at rotating the strike, picking twos regularly, are the ones that are going to minimise their risks and preserve wickets. This is a big deal for teams used to scoring fours and sixes, because unless they can change the way they can accumulate runs, they are going to create more risks and lose more wickets. I believe that teams that have the ability to rotate the strike in the larger grounds will allow themselves the chance to make the bigger scores in the World Cup.

I think there's got to be a nice balance in terms of ground sizes. The grounds in New Zealand tend to be smaller. Some of the boundaries in T20 games are too small with dimensions of not more than 60-65 metres. I believe it should be around 70-75 metres. There needs to be some reward for bowlers who bowl well, and batsmen need to pay the price for playing false shots.

The dynamics of selection can also change. On the smaller grounds with good pitches, it's more about how many batsmen a team has with strike rates over 100. You would choose different batsmen to suit certain conditions. For instance, teams with successful T20 batsmen will be preferred. It would come down to how teams understand when to use them.