PUNE: When India's home red-ball season began in Chennai last month, there was this theory that pitches for this season would have some juice for the pacers.
It would serve the dual purpose of increased game time for the seamers while getting Indian batters accustomed to the conditions in Australia. While none of the players confirmed this theory, that first morning in Chennai created a sort of recency bias. The Bangladesh pacers had the Indian batters rattled at 3/34 on the first morning.
It's safe to say that sort of spice will be missing from Pune's bald black soil strip. The team batting first can still lose three wickets in the first hour on the opening morning but it may be due to spin rather than pace.
As always, after an India loss at home, all the attention has turned to the one piece of land - the 22 yards - immediately before a Test. The ground staff added to the intrigue as they watered the full-length areas on both sides of the deck while keeping the majority of it under Hessian to protect it from the blazing afternoon sun. They also exclusively used the heavy roller on the watered areas of the surface while the Hessian remained firmly in place.
If this was on Wednesday, on Tuesday, they performed some shaving operations as they trimmed the grass covering. They also engaged in a bit of scruff up parts of the surface.
Long story short, with 18 hours to go for the second Test, it certainly had the unfamiliar but unmistakable stench of the hosts trailing in a home series after the opener (including Bengaluru, it has happened in four series in seven years).
While both teams remained tight-lipped on the possible combinations they were after, there's little doubt what both camps thought the pitch would do. Spin.
"We are going to have a completely different surface to the one we had in Bengaluru," was how Tom Latham summed up the surface during Wednesday's pre-match press conference.
While Gambhir was asked some customary questions about the pitch, the inclusion of Washington Sundar is a sort of giveaway even if he isn't going to be an automatic starter.
"We just felt that they have four of five left-handers in the playing XI," Gambhir said. "If we want to have another bowler who can take the ball away from the left-handers, it is always going to be useful for us. But we haven't decided the playing XI."
If Washington is to feature, it may be at the expense of Kuldeep Yadav. While Yadav has been among the wickets, Washington can add batting depth lower in the order. While Kuldeep is a natural wicket-taker, Washington can be seen as a safer option because he gives the bowling team better control.
"We feel that if Washy can give us more control in the middle, it is always going to be good for us."
The Black Caps have a selection headache of their own. Their pacers accounted for 17 of the 20 scalps in Bengaluru but Latham is conscious of this surface being a different one.
"Try and adapt as quickly as we can," he said on Wednesday. "If it turns a bit more, we obviously have four spinners in our line-up.. try not to go into the game with preconceived ideas."
While Ajaz Patel is more or less a lock, two of the other frontline spinning options, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner had a very long training session on Wednesday afternoon. If they plump for Santner's all-round ability - he has a very good catalogue of white-ball spells against India, something which could swing the tide in his favour - that will be a very difficult selection meeting.
Hosts change course?
When Gambhir had addressed the pre-series press conference in Bengaluru, the coach was keen to club the upcoming eight Tests (three in India and five in Australia) as one package.
"This is probably the start of looking at eight Tests in a row," he had said back then.
Now, there has, at least at the subconscious level, a decoupling. Two here and five there. "Once the NZ series is over, we still have around 10 or 12 days before the Tests in Australia," the coach said. "That's enough break for our fast bowlers. But we still monitor after the Test match where Jasprit Bumrah is. But it's about all the fast bowlers. We want to keep them fresh."
That, though, will be on the horizon. Now, needs must. What they need is a series-levelling win.