Motera pitch in focus ahead of the grand finale

Across nine venues and 10 matches over the past six weeks, Rahul Dravid's routine as head coach on days leading up to a game hasn't changed.

- Vivek Krishnan

A stickler for absorbing the finer nuances of how a pitch may behave even during his playing days, Dravid was back to gazing long and hard at the playing surface at the Narendra Modi Stadium two days away from the final against Australia.

At a quarter past 3 on Friday, with the sun not as harsh as what it was a month ago for the India-Pakistan showdown, Dravid was out in the middle with his support staff and skipper Rohit Sharma.

Not an immediate glance was available for the Indian camp, with the surface set to be used for the final covered with a couple of brown sheets alongside two other pitches to its left.

Soon enough though, the layers came off as Dravid and Sharma proceeded to have a lengthy discussion presumably on what to expect come Sunday. While a sprinkling of grass was there to hold the pitch together, it is customary for that to be shaved off on match eve.