IND VS NZ: Curator of Ekana stadium's 'shocker pitch' sacked

After captain Hardik Pandya, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and IPL team Lucknow Super Giants' mentor Gautam Gambhir all called out the Ekana pitch for being 'sub standard', the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association decided to sack the curator as per a report in the Indian Express.

A total of only 200 runs were scored on the 'poor' pitch of the Lucknow stadium during India's 2nd T20I against New Zealand which the hosts won by 6 wickets.

UPCA informed that the pitch curator has been replaced by Sanjeev Agrawal of Gwalior after the pitch curation was harshly criticised.

Interestingly, the pitch used in 2nd T20I, as per the report turned out to be poor because of a last-minute request from the Indian Team management.

The report said that the curator had prepared 2 black soil pitches for the game in advance however he was asked to prepare a red soil pitch instead just 3-days before the match. The new pitch could not be prepared properly on short notice and resulted in slower conditions.