Is this pitch doing too much?

I’m in a bit of a quandary here. For most of the summer I’ve been campaigning for spicier pitches in order to inconvenience the visitors from the sub-continent. Now with this pitch at Trent Bridge, I’m worried things may have gone a little too far. I’m hoping that it might be the combination of the overhead conditions and the greenish pitch that is making batting look so treacherous.

But when you see the ball that dismissed Graeme Swann, sending him off to hospital for an x-ray, you do wonder whether that really should be happening on the first day of a Test match.

What cannot be denied is that it has provided some absorbing cricket. India’s bowlers bowled excellently until Stuart Broad and Swann counter-attacked late on in a thrilling partnership. It certainly wasn’t mindless slogging. It was calculated aggression in conditions that demanded such an approach. There always appears to be a good ball waiting around the corner for you on this pitch, so it’s best to score as many runs as you can before it arrives.

Pace and bounce are what I’ve been advocating all summer, but whilst there has been some bounce here there has not been a great deal of pace. But, with a rather uneven covering of grass, there has been seam movement to add to the swing through the air that you always seem to encounter at Trent Bridge these days.

So how did England play? Alastair Cook wasn’t out (where is that damned DRS please?), Jonathan Trott was done by swing, Andrew Strauss battled hard before losing patience and driving loosely, Kevin Pietersen was distracted by some dark windows above the sightscreen, Eoin Morgan was plumb lbw, Ian Bell was caught behind cutting and Matt Prior got a beauty. Broad and Swann rescued them.

No-one, however, played as poor a shot as Indian opener Abhinav Mukund. What was he thinking, driving with such abandon first ball? The battle to the close was then fierce. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman rode their luck and used their expertise. They will need plenty more of it tomorrow.

What do you think? Is the pitch too helpful? Or do you like this sort of cricket?