After New Zealand finished practice, the groundsmen uncovered the pitch and began to scrub the surface with wire brushes. The smattering of live grass the Kiwis had spotted in the morning was now shaved, the debris wiped and tied into big brown sacks. By the time head coach Gautam Gambhir and his aides inspected the pitch, the sun blazing over their heads, the track’s visage was dry and abrasive. Predicting pitch behaviour two days before the match is more speculative than scientific, however there were ample signs that conditions in Pune could be starkly different from those in Bengaluru. The barely-watered 22 yards were unprotected from an unrelenting sun, as though left open to bake it a bit more. The pitch would turn — the only suspense is when — as India looked to bounce back from the first Test shock. But there have been home games where the ‘turning track’ ploy has backfired. Indian batsmen have made it a habit of making nondescript overseas spinners seem world-class. Tom Hartley, Matthew Kuhnemann, Shoaib Bashir, Ajaz …