Home teams should demand the surface, and they should get it’ in IPL: Aakash Chopra

The ongoing debate over home advantage in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 has gained significant eyeballs, with several coaches and experts giving their views on whether franchises should control pitch preparation at their home grounds. Meanwhile, former India cricketer-turned commentator Aakash Chopra has been in favour of allowing home teams to dictate surface conditions, as home advantage is a crucial part of the game.

In the early phase of IPL 2025, Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Chandrakant Pandit expressed concerns about the team having little say in the preparation of the Eden Gardens pitch. Similarly, Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming revealed that his team doesn’t get a significant home advantage at Chepauk, citing difficulties in reading the surfaces.

Later, Lucknow Super Giants mentor Zaheer Khan pointed out that the Ekana Stadium surface looked to have been prepared in favor of the opposition. Chopra believes that home teams should be allowed to demand specific pitch conditions. Chopra stressed that the pitch plays an important role in team strategies, and without the ability to influence it, teams lose a crucial aspect of their planning.

“I feel every home team should have the right to decide the kind of surface that they want. They should demand the surface, and they should get it, is what I feel, because home advantage is real, and that comes in only two forms: one is the surface that you choose and the second is the crowd support that is there. Other than that it’s an away game. The paramount thing is the surface they are going to play on – crowd might still be secondary. If you take away the pitch, I think whole plans completely derail,” Chopra said on ESPNcricinfo’s IPL show, Time Out.

The issue becomes harder for teams like Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings, and Rajasthan Royals, who play some of their home matches at secondary venues like Visakhapatnam, Dharamsala, and Guwahati. The former admits that this puts these teams at a disadvantage, as they are unable to build squads shaped to a consistent home surface.

“From time to time I actually scratch my head [about this], and I still haven’t found an answer […] because you don’t pick a team based on how the pitch is going to be in Guwahati or in Dharamsala. You pick a [Royals] team [on the basis of], okay, I’m going to play seven games at Sawai Mansingh Stadium [in Jaipur], ideally. Or Chennai will pick a team that is ideal for Chepauk for those seven games. And if you deny them that opportunity to play the right kind of team that you picked thinking, that this is the kind of surface that we want, if you don’t get that surface, then it just doesn’t work out. So in my opinion, every team should actually be allowed to dictate the way the pitches are to be made,” he added.

BCCI would like to have a little bit of control over it: Sanjay Bangar

On the other hand, former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar believes the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should maintain some control to prevent games from becoming too one-sided.

“I think still BCCI would like to have a little bit of control over it, and maintain the characteristics of a particular surface. If you give it to the hands of the franchise, you do not really want the game to be too lopsided as well, so I’m of the opinion [of having] a little bit of uniformity wherein not having too much of a say for the home side, still there is enough variety in terms of the vast nature of our country wherein cricket is played all across the nation, in itself has variations in terms of red soil, black soil and all of that. I’m of the opinion that a little bit of direction or guideline is always better,” Bangar said. 

Bangar also specified that IPL teams do not own their stadiums or curators, as these are managed by state associations. He advised that in the future, franchises may have their grounds, allowing them greater control over pitch conditions. However, under the current structure, teams are essentially living on rent and making it difficult for them to dictate terms completely.

“In RCB, Chinnaswamy, there are only two pitches on which you can play games, because of the size of the ground. And generally, you can’t have a lot of variation [between] those two surfaces, because it is practically impossible to do that. You can clearly build a team taking into account the past knowledge and past experience of what has happened on that particular venue, and pick a team. But if you pick a team and then ask the groundsman [for a particular kind of pitch], then I don’t think that will go down well with the system,” Bangar concluded.

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