The sandy outfield of Dharamsala’s HPCA Stadium was the subject of discussion during the 2023 World Cup match between Bangladesh and Afghanistan on October 7.
Afghanistan off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman nearly injured himself diving at the deep backward square leg region to avoid a boundary, while wearing a patchwork appearance devoid of any grass covering prior to the start of the game. He fell, slamming his knee into the hard ground as the muck kicked up on impact.
Unhappy with the quality of the ground, an Afghanistan setup member informed Cricbuzz that it isn’t match-ready for international cricket.
“Yeah, it is sad to see. It is a beautiful place to play cricket…it [outfield] is not ready for international cricket. Not okay. Right now it is not good for international cricket. Maybe it is because of rain… but yeah it is not ready now. The curator says lots of rain happened but if it continues like this, someone will get injured on the ground. No one wants to dive or slide and in cricket you should be able to do that,”
Afghanistan Team Staff
Earlier this year, the third Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy was moved from Dharamsala to Indore due to a shortage of grass density on the outfield.
The stadium will host four more World Cup games, the next of which being England’s match against Bangladesh on Tuesday, October 10.
On October 22, Team India will face New Zealand in one of their league stage games at the gorgeous venue.
Mujeeb’s knee injury not serious, says Jonathan Trott
Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott was critical of the Dharamsala outfield, saying ace off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman was fortunate to avoid major injury.
Trott believes that with the increased emphasis on ground fielding and diving, players need not be concerned about injury in the outfield.
During the post-game press conference, an irritated Trott stated:
“If you’ve got players unsure of whether they can dive. We see the product of cricket all around the world where players are taught and encouraged to improve their fielding. Then when you’ve got players worried about getting injured. We’re lucky Mujeeb hasn’t got a serious knee injury towards the end.”
“Yes he probably shouldn’t have dived with his knee but I think it was Devon Conway earlier from New Zealand… It’s something for them [organisers] to look at. I’m definitely not putting any blame on that, but that’s something to keep an eye on for the future,”
Jonathan Trott
However, the poor performance of Afghanistan in their World Cup opener cannot be attributed to the Dharamsala outfield. The team displayed a disappointing batting performance, managing only 156 runs before being all-out in the 38th over.
Bangladesh responded by chasing down the total by six wickets with about 16 overs to spare.
While Afghanistan has no further games planned at Dharamsala, Bangladesh will play England on October 10 at the same location.