England cricket team skipper Ben Stokes was taken aback by the pitch for the fourth Test match against India in Ranchi and said that he has “never seen anything like that before”. The match starting Friday is a must-win for the visitors if they want to clinch the series as they currently trail 1-2 in the five-match series. In a recent interview, Stokes said that he found the appearance of the pitch in Ranchi quite deceptive as he felt it has a proper grass cover from a distance but on a closer inspection, the all-rounder found that there were several visible cracks and can be challenging for both the batting and bowling sides.

“I’ve never seen something like that before. I have got no idea so I don’t know what could happen. If you looked down one side of opposite ends it just looked different to what I am used to seeing, especially out in India. It looked green and grassy up in the changing rooms, but then you go out there it looked different: very dark and crumbly and quite a few cracks in it,” Stokes told BBC Sport.

England would not mind a rank turner in the fourth Test because assistance to spinners from the word go will make it a level-playing field, vice captain Ollie Pope said on Wednesday.

The Tests in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Rajkot all had sporting pitches, which were not predominantly spin-friendly and had something for everyone.

“If it does spin from ball one, it takes the toss out of the equation, then it’s an even playing field,” Pope told reporters.

“A lot of the time the wicket starts out flat and then deteriorates. We won the first game batting first, India the last two batting first. It doesn’t define the result if you bat first on slightly flatter wicket but it does give you an advantage,” he added.

(With PTI inputs)