Cricket / Hair dryer, steam iron used to dry pitch for T20I in Guwahati; fans troll BCCI

India’s first T20 International of 2020 is turning out to be a damp squib. The match was scheduled to begin at 7 PM IST and has been delayed as the rain came down heavily after the toss took place. At the start, it just looked like a passing shower but then it was absolutely pouring down minutes. Around 8 PM though the heavens relented, the rain had already affected the state of the pitch with wet patches.

Just when the ground staff started its repair work, the rain returned to make things worse. This time though more care was taken with an extra cover being placed on the 22 yards. However, the damage was already done and when it all cleared around 8.45 PM, the ground staff much to everyone’s surprise brought out the hair dryer to dry the wet patches on the pitch.

Vacuum cleaner, hairdryer, iron... every single thing from a common man's home is currently being used to dry the dampened pitch at Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati.#AssamCricketAssociation Hats off to the hard work #INDvSL #INDvsSL pic.twitter.com/PPRqTH8nzp

— Aakash Biswas (@aami_aakash) January 5, 2020

Not only this, even the steam iron is being used to get the pitch ready in order to make the play possible. While there is no doubt about the groundstaff’s dedication at work, usage of hair dryer and steam iron is looking funny. Rather, Twitterverse is already trolling them and lashing out at them for not opting for proper measures to ready the pitch.

Virat Kohli won the first toss of the year

Earlier, Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, won the first toss of the year and had no hesitation in bowling first. The hosts benched Ravindra Jadeja and Yuzvendra Chahal for the game while Sanju Samson and Manish Pandey continued to be on the sidelines. There was a lot of anticipation around Jasprit Bumrah’s return. He was also marking his run-up only for the rain to play spoilsport.

However, one has to feel for the jam-packed crowd in Guwahati as well that they have been made to wait so long thanks to the rain. Though they are enjoying in the stands, the Twitterati is busy trolling the ground staff for using hair dryer and steam iron to dry the pitch.