India’s players warm up during a practice session ahead of the first Test cricket match against West Indies at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

New Delhi: As India gear up for the Test season at home with the match against West Indies in Ahmedabad from Oct 2, one may see them deviate from playing on rank turners to start with. TOI has learnt that the team management is not keen on playing on raging turners and would prefer to play on pitches that stay true for most of the match against West Indies.However, it is likely that the team management would want to play on turning pitches when South Africa come to play two Tests in Nov. India had suffered a 0-3 drubbing at the hands of New Zealand at home last year on pitches that turned square from Day One. It cost India a chance to make the World Test Championship (WTC) final for the first time since its inception in 2021.“It has been communicated to the curators that the team wants to play on sporting pitches that won’t have overtly variable bounce and turn from Day One. One can expect the matches to go on till the fourth day during the West Indies series,” a BCCI source told TOI.The next Test against West Indies is in Delhi from Oct 10. The pitch at Arun Jaitley stadium here has grown in reputation for its good carry and high-scoring white-ball games over the last two years.The idea is to give Indian batters as much time in the middle as possible against West Indies to prepare for the South Africa series. In essence, this series is seen as a warmup before facing the reigning WTC champions. With Rishabh Pant, who has been India’s best batter on raging turners, unavailable, the team management would want its middle-order to settle down. Interestingly, India have also picked seam-bowling allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy for the West Indies series. India have rarely picked a seam-bowling allrounder for home series, even when Hardik Pandya was available for Test cricket.The two Tests against South Africa are in Guwahati and Kolkata.It will be interesting to see how Guwahati responds to the request of the team management, since it will be the first Test at the venue. Eden Gardens has a reputation of having good bounce and aids seam bowling.South Africa have a world-class spinner in Keshav Maharaj. But it must be noted that India struggled against Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel and Glenn Phillips last year. South Africa’s potent pace attack could play a role while planning for the Test season. South Africa’s batting has a poor reputation when it comes to playing spin.The Indian team management knows they can’t slip at home if they want to secure their WTC final berth in 2027.