Drop-in pitches will help sub-continent teams: Bevan

Drop-in pitches at several venues of World Cup matches will nullify home advantage as such wickets tend to be more benign and will help subcontinent teams acclimatise quicker in the cricket's showpiece even, according to former Australian all-rounder Michael Bevan.
"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," Bevan was quoted as saying in column on ESPNcricinfo.

"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," he added.
Always Australia's man-of-the-hour in crunch situations, Bevan, who represented the country in 18 Tests and 232 ODIs, believes that the Asian teams will find the bounce tough to handle.
"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 Indian medium-pacers have come in for a lot of stick in their stay in Australia so far and have also been criticised for bowling short at times. Bevan, 44, also opines that bowling short is a blunder that many a sub-continent bowler is guilty of committing.
"The trap a lot of teams fall into, especially those used to bowling in the subcontinent, is that they tend to bowl it shorter, which means that batters who are brought up on hard wickets are used to this length are strong on the cut and pull," said the cricketer-turned-analyst.