India cricket team will be eyeing a 2-0 whitewash against West Indies as they take on the visitors in the IND vs WI 2nd Test at the Arun Jaitley stadium in New Delhi from October 10 onwards. Shubman Gill kick-started his era as Test captain at home on a victorious note as the hosts romped home to an innings and 140-run victory in the first Test in Ahmedabad. The first look of the surface in Delhi is out and it looks like a batter’s paradise awaits once again.
What to expect from Delhi surface for IND vs WI 2nd Test?
A day before the IND vs WI 2nd, captain Shubman Gill and vice-captain Ravindra Jadeja were spotted inspecting the pitch at the Arun Jaitley stadium. While the surface in Delhi has favoured batters in the past in white-ball contests, the same cannot be said for a red-ball contest. It is pertinent to point out that the last Test that was hosted at the venue was against Australia (Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2023) where the ball kept pretty low and spinners ended up getting 19 wickets across 4 innings.
Going by the looks of the pitch, the match is for India to win should they bat first. Should the West Indies opt to bat first, then it remains to be seen how the batting line-up fares, given that they suffered a double collapse in Ahmedabad. Unlike the 1st Test, pacers are not expected to get help from the surface and spinners could rather steal the show.
Regardless, it looks like the best time to bat could be on Day 1 while the ball is expected to turn from Day 2 onwards, which means that is when the spinners could essentially make exploits. A little bit of grass that is currently left on the surface is potentially to only keep the soil intact and could be gone at the start of the 2nd Test.
