Shami question part of India's rare green-pitch musings

Remember the Nagpur pitch? No, not this one. The 2004 one.

Before their unexpected Pune triumph just under a month ago, Australia's last Test win in India had come on that 2004 Nagpur pitch, which, according to Wisden, had "looked like an old-fashioned English green seamer".

The lead-up to that Nagpur Test wasn't dissimilar to the lead-up to the final Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series in Dharamsala. Australia were 1-0 ahead then, after two Tests, but India may have felt, coming into Nagpur, that rain had denied them a win in the second Test in Chennai. The series was shaping up to be just as competitive as this one has been, 12-and-a-half years later.

Just then, India came up against the last pitch they may have expected to see in their own backyard.

In the days leading up to Dharamsala, media reports have emerged that the HPCA Stadium pitch is set to be full of pace and bounce and, consequently, play into Australia's hands. "Fiery pitch for cool Dharamsala?" screamed the Times of India headline. Mitchell Johnson, speaking to Fox News, said he had never seen a Dharamsala pitch without grass on it, and predicted that Australia might leave out a spinner and play a third seamer.

On Wednesday afternoon, three days before the start of the Test match, there was a smattering of grass on the pitch, though nothing as generous as on an old-fashioned English green seamer. The pitch was light green, so pale it was almost straw-coloured. It may look just the same on the first morning, or entirely different.

Sunil Chauhan, the HPCA curator, refused to divulge any details about the methods of preparation that had gone into this pitch. He did, however, say his pitch would offer something to all four - not three, four - disciplines: pace bowling, batting, spin bowling, and fielding. How can a pitch help fielders? By ensuring the ball bounces enough for edges to carry to the slip cordon.

Chauhan's insistence that good carry would be a definite characteristic of his pitch was reminiscent of what Pandurang Salgaoncar, the Pune curator, had said in the days leading up to the first Test. He hadn't just said the ball would carry; he had said it would "fly".

We all know what happened next. And Daljit Singh, the chairman of the BCCI's Pitches Committee, who landed in Pune two days before the first Test, is in Dharamsala too, overseeing the preparations.

Still, a pitch in late-March Dharamsala, located in the Himalayas and experiencing intermittent rainfall and maximum temperatures in the low 20s, will not behave like a pitch baked by the dry heat of late-February Pune, even - and this is probably not the case - if it contains the same soil and is subject to the same kind of watering. Even if it isn't an actual greentop, seamers might find early morning assistance, and some swing through the air.

Conditions like that could cause India to ponder including Bhuvneshwar Kumar, their specialist in seam-friendly conditions. Bhuvneshwar has only played five of India's 16 Tests since the start of their 2016 West Indies tour, but has taken 14 wickets in that period at an average of 18.71, including two five-wicket hauls. Give him a bit of help, and he becomes a sharp, accurate, two-way swing bowler who's always at the batsman.

Or India could include Mohammed Shami, who has been their most impressive quick this season, across conditions - when fit.

Shami hasn't played an international game since missing the last two Tests against England with injuries in his right leg. He has recovered fully, and has been building up match-fitness gradually - he bowled in the nets before the Bengaluru and Ranchi Tests, and then flew out to join the Bengal team that was playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India's domestic 50-overs tournament. He played two matches, bowling seven wicketless overs in a defeat to Gujarat and taking four wickets in 8.2 overs in the final against Tamil Nadu.

He is now with the Indian squad in Dharamsala - and has even tweeted about it - though not yet officially part of it.

ESPNcricinfo understands the selectors are enthused by the form and fitness Shami has shown while bowling in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, but remain cautious about his ability to extend that over five days. They, along with India's team management, are likely to assess his fitness in the nets and take a call on whether he can fit in their plans for the Test match.

In this series, Ishant Sharma has done a mostly competent job in terms of direction and has occasionally fired himself up into bowling a threatening spell or two, but he has still only managed three wickets in three Tests at 69.66.

Umesh Yadav has taken 12 wickets at 25.00, finding some belated reward for a season in which he has allied his pace and reverse-swing to a new-found consistency of line and length, but there still remain gaps in his bowling. Having barely bowled a bouncer on day one in Ranchi, for instance, he used it frequently in his first spell on day two, indicative of a bowler who still sometimes needs direction from the team management.

Shami is different, a bowler who gives the impression that he thinks on his feet. He uses the new ball better than either Ishant or Umesh, making batsmen play more often while presenting a gloriously upright seam that ensures he gets more out of the surface than the other two. He can get wickets with swing, seam, reverse-swing and - his specialty on Indian pitches - skid from a three-quarter length, while also possessing the most accurate bouncer of all the Indian quicks.

If fit, Shami walks into India's bowling attack. Will he be, though? And what of Bhuvneshwar? And even if conditions favour the seamers significantly, will India pick one or even both of them when neither has played any part in the series so far?

There is still a long way to go before we know the answers, but one thing is certain. India have a genuine pool of quicks, each with different attributes, to pick from. In the 2004 Nagpur Test, India picked a two-man seam attack of Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan, who at that stage was still fairly raw and before that game averaged 36.56 from 31 Tests. In 2017, they are probably far better equipped to handle a similar situation.