India to practice on bouncy pitches

The India Test squad, whose advance party arrives in South Africa on Monday evening, will prepare for their three-Test series by training on "hard, bouncy pitches with no lateral movement" to simulate conditions they expect to find through the series, particularly in Centurion, venue of the first Test. Their training will take place at the Gary Kirsten Performance Zone Academy in Cape Town.

"We received a brief to prepare pitches that are similar to the Centurion surface," Martin Brand, the patron for the Claremont Cricket Club where the academy is, told ESPNcricinfo.

As India will have no warm-up matches before the first Test, their coach Gary Kirsten has been keen to get the players practicing on South Africa's bouncy wickets to prepare them for the barrage of short balls expected from the home-team bowlers. India are expected to spend a week working in the academy to improve their record in South Africa, where they are yet to win a series and have won only a single Test in 12 attempts since 1992.

The first batch of players to arrive in Cape Town will be Virender Sehwag, Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav and Jaidev Unadkat, and the training will begin on Tuesday afternoon. "More groups of players will arrive after that and they have requested morning sessions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday," Brand said. "We expect the full Test squad to be here by Friday and they will all have a final net session on Saturday." Friday's session will also include intensive fielding drills.

The academy has prepared seven pitches: three on the lower oval and four on the practice field. They will provide fielders for the Indians on Friday and bowlers from the club and the Western Province amateur side throughout the week. What the Indians won't be getting is help from some of the frontline fast bowlers in Cape Town. Richard Pybus, who coaches the Cape Cobras, the city's franchise, said the likes of Vernon Philander, Rory Kleinveldt and Monde Zondeki will not be bowling to the India batsmen at any stage.

Kirsten, Paddy Upton and Dale Williams founded the academy in 2006, about a year before Kirsten started travelling with India in late 2007. "He got the job with India before the academy could really get going, so there hasn't been much going on here."

Kirsten's brainchild has been lying dormant for some time but its first job is a big one. Brand and his ground staff have been getting ready to host India for the past week and are excited about the first assignment. "I can't say we know what to expect because it's the first time we are hosting a training camp here. This is the first time the academy has done something like this and been used in this capacity, but we are confident we will do a good job."