Kanpur: The final match of the World Test Championship (WTC) is set to begin on Friday between India and New Zealand. It is a big contest. Virat Kohli and the team will definitely be eyeing the pitch. Simon Lee, head groundsman at Southampton's Ageas Bowl ground, has been entrusted with the responsibility of making the pitch. He is preparing the pitch with a lot of hard work. Talking to Cricinfo, Lee said, "It is a great opportunity to have a WTC final here at the Ages Bowl, obviously if there was no epidemic, this match would not have been here, so I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to prepare the pitch for the biggest game of the Test. This is a huge opportunity."
Lee added, "You can't rush when it comes to pitch preparation work. Work could not have started here before the end of May. By then we had started rolling out practice pitches and the Test pitch has been started a few days after that as you don't want to prepare it ahead of time. It is ideal to prepare it before the match". Let us tell you that India's Test record at Southampton is nothing special. India have lost both Test matches (2014 and 2018), while New Zealand will play their first Test at Southampton.
Talking about the pitch for the final match, Lee says, 'It's like there's some pace and bounce. It may be difficult to do so in England because the weather does not help us most of the time, but it is forecast that the sun will be high, but there are full chances of rain. So we hope we get some pace and a tough pitch".
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