Trott made clear that he did not blame Afghanistan’s heavy defeat on the condition of the outfield, and said it was not his place to “make an assessment” on whether the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium was fit to host games at the World Cup. But he said that it had not helped the spectacle, and suggested that the ICC should look at the quality of outfields across the country.
“If you’ve got players unsure of whether they can dive… we see the product of cricket all around the world where players are taught, encouraged to improve their fielding,” he said. “And when you’ve got players worried about getting injured… I mean, we are lucky Mujeeb hasn’t got a serious knee injury towards the end.
“Yes, he probably shouldn’t have dived with his knee. But we saw the other night [in Ahmedabad], Devon Conway from New Zealand early on as well, so it’s something for them [the organisers] to look at. I’m definitely not putting any blame on that, but that’s something to keep an eye on for the future.”
The state of the outfield will be a concern for both Bangladesh and England ahead of their fixture at the same venue on Tuesday. Both sides will be wary of the possibility of losing players to injury, particularly so early in the competition, while Jonny Bairstow and Reece Topley are among the England players who have suffered freak injuries after slipping in the past 18 months.