At Fortress Mohali, can Team India keep up its outstanding record?
It was at this stadium that team India played its inaugural Test match in December 1994. The squad went on to lose the match to the West Indies by a massive score of 243 runs. Ever since the first Test was held at Mohali, India has never lost a match there. Furthermore, since 2000, the hosts have won seven of the ten tests played at this venue, with the remaining three matches being drawn.
This certainly establishes Mohali as one of India’s most formidable locations, a fortress where the squad knows how to triumph. Rohit Sharma will have the difficult job of preserving India’s unblemished record at the venue when he leads India in the first Test against Sri Lanka on Friday.
One of India’s few test venues with such a reputation was Mohali, a surface known for assisting seamers in the 1990s. Spinners, on the other hand, have received just as much, if not more, purchase from the pitch over the years.
The ability of India’s spinners to outwit visiting hitters has been the bedrock of the country’s unbroken record at home in Test cricket since 2012. In the same way that some other countries put subcontinental teams to the test by forcing them to play on wickets that encourage bounce and movement, India has relied on the strength of its spinners to bulldoze teams at home.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravichandran Jadeja have been India’s most prolific match-winners with the ball during this time, thanks to a successful run on home pitches that have frequently gone square.
It will be interesting to see if India continues to use the “spin to win” strategy under Rohit Sharma.
