CHENNAI: Toss. Weather. Conditions. Pitch. Dew. Outfield.

These are just some of the factors that have a significant say in the way a team approaches a match, irrespective of the format.

Among the above, pitch takes prominence for how it behaves could dictate the pace at which play progresses. While cricket is still scratching the surface when it comes to data, significant technological advancements have been made in many other aspects, including the pitch.

Whether it is drop-in or conventional, there are different types of pitches based on the soil used, and so on. Over the past decade or so, hybrid pitches, too, have come into practice, especially for the white-ball format.

SISGrass, a UK-based synthetic turf manufacturer, has been a pioneer in the field — not just in cricket but also in football, rugby and hockey. With over 650 hybrid pitches installed across the globe, including Dubai, where conditions are vastly different from England.

And now, joining hands with Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), they have installed four hybrid pitches on the square of the scenic venue at the foothills of the Dhauladhar Range and two pitches in the nets outside. While they are used just for practice at the moment, it is the first time a venue in the country has installed hybrid pitches.

Now, what is a hybrid pitch and how is it different from a conventional surface? Paul Taylor, former England cricketer and International Sales Director, Cricket at SIS Grass, explains.

“There are different kinds of hybrid pitches. There is an artificial hybrid, a concrete base with a carpet on top and then a soil profile on top of that. There’s a carpeted hybrid, which is a synthetic carpet. It’s then filled with soil, and then grass grows within that soil. Then there’s the stitched hybrid, which is what we do. It takes your existing natural turf pitch and we inject synthetic fibres into that surface. And the stitching is at 20*20m centres. It covers the whole pitch, and it extends beyond the stump lines by about a metre to make sure that the back foot contact for the bowlers is part of the system. The fundamental thing that is different about our pitch, is that it’s still 95 percent a natural turf surface. There’s only 5 percent of fibre injected into it,” Taylor tells this daily.