We asked for good pitches but got challenging ones: RCB’s Karthik

Bengaluru, April 11: Royal Challengers Bengaluru mentor Dinesh Karthik conceded that his side has received a “challenging” pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium this season despite asking for a batting friendly surface, adding that the management will have a chat with the curator soon.
RCB’s power-packed batting line-up rendered ineffective on a sluggish deck in their two home games while getting restricted to 169/8 and 163/7 against Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals respectively, losing both the fixtures.
Karthik thinks the 22-yard strip has deprived RCB of the home advantage at a venue where matches have traditionally been high-scoring.“In the first two games, we have asked for good pitches. But it’s turned out in this way where it’s been challenging to bat on. So, we try to do the best with whatever we get. But we will obviously have a chat with him (curator). We trust him to do his job,” said Karthik in the post-match press conference.
“So, definitely, this is not a pitch that’s helping the batters too much. It’s a challenging pitch. So, that has been the case so far in both the games that we have played,” he added.
Karthik said big hits and boundaries are an essential part of T20s, palatable to all stakeholders.“I think the way T20 cricket is, the more runs there are, the better it is for the broadcaster, the better it is for the fans. They all like to see boundaries. And we will try and do the best of what we can,” he said.
The former India wicketkeeper batter said while they try not to follow any particular template in a match, pitches such as the one at the Chinnaswamy made it tough for batters to even rotate the strike.
“I think with every pitch, we’ll try and understand what’s the best way to play. I don’t think we have one set template that is how we want to go out there and play. It’s important to adapt and understand what the pitch is,” he detailed. (PTI)