Get set for a run-fest as India take on England

The curator has promised a good batting strip for the first One-day international between India and England here on Friday, saying the batsman could go for their shots on 'sporting wicket'.

The pitch which will be used for the series-opener is the one, which was used for the Champions League Twenty20 matches.

Curator Y L Chandrasekhar said it will be a sporting wicket which the batsmen would like. "We had initially zeroed in on two strips among the five and now the match will be played on the strip that was used for Champions League Twenty20," Chandrasekhar told PTI.

The pitch from a distance looks like one which is tailor- made for the India team, which has not won an international match for quite some time now.

However, Chandrasekhar said that he didn't get any 'feelers from Indian camp' while preparing the pitch. "There wasn't any request from the team management. I have prepared a strip which will be good for stroke-play. I can assure that it is a sporting wicket. If you check out on the Champions League T20 matches, the ones which were played on this strip were high scoring games," he stated.

The highest score on the match strip during the CLT20 was 188 by South Australia Redbacks while KKR in reply had scored 169.

Chandrasekhar also assured that the team bowling second won't be affected by the dew factor which is pretty common in the sub-continent. "Dew won't be a factor," he said informing that HCA possesses a good drainage facility and in case there is a rain delay, it won't take much time to start the proceedings.

The Indian team today had a two-and-a-half hour session. The only player to miss out was opener Gautam Gambhir who was supposed to arrive late in the evening.

Gambhir who played back-to-back matches in the Challenger Series in Nagpur was excused from today's net session.

All the top order batsmen had a decent hit in the middle. Amongst all, Ajinkya Rahane stood out as he looked solid during the 45 minutes that he batted at the nets.

It was Suresh Raina who was the first to enter the nets while his colleagues were still busy playing football. Raina practiced horizontal bat shots at the nets.