India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey is surprised to note the variable bounce of the Ranchi pitch in the ongoing fourth Test match against England. Mhambrey admitted they didn’t expect the track to play so low on the second day.

In fact, England skipper Ben Stokes was plumbed in front by a grubber from Ravindra Jadeja on the opening day of the Test match. Similarly, Ravichandran Ashwin was trapped in front by Tom Hartley on the second day’s play.

“From what we have seen out here, generally, the nature of the pitch is that it gets slower as the game progresses. We expected that. But, to be honest, we didn’t expect it to play that low on the second day itself,” said Mhambrey after Stumps on Day 2.

“A couple of balls did keep low in the first innings itself. We expected it to get slower. But we were not expecting the variable bounce.”

The current Ranchi pitch has been difficult for batting as there is unpredictable bounce in the track. Mhambrey said he won’t call this a rank-turner.

“Firstly, the venue is not something that we can control. The way the [Ranchi] pitch plays has always been similar here. It has never been a rank-turner and I would not call this one.

“There was variable bounce. But I don’t think there were too many that spun sharply from the wicket. It was the variable bounce, on the lower side, which has made batting difficult. That is the nature of the soil. There were no specific instructions from us [to the curator] that we wanted to play on a rank turner,” he added.

Meanwhile, India lost the first Test match on a rank turner in Hyderabad by 28 runs but bounced back on flat pitches in Vizag and Rajkot to win by 106 and 434 runs respectively. However, the hosts found themselves under the cosh at 219-7 on a tricky pitch in Ranchi.

Mhambrey refused to look too far ahead in the game and said they will look to chase whatever target they are given but they certainly need to bat better in the second innings.

“What is important is that we have two set batsmen [Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav] at the crease. We have a 40+ partnership going. I think they have really applied themselves. The important thing is we get as close as possible to the English total and then we will see tomorrow.

“What we need to look at is, that we are going to chase. The target will differ but mentally we will have to be ready to chase. We have to bat well in the second innings, whatever the target is. Let’s keep it that simple,” added Mhambrey.

India is currently 134 runs behind England’s score of 353 runs.