The County Championship returned this week after its mid-summer break, and the pitch at Grace Road immediately drew attention. It's not hard to see why, you'd be hard pressed to find a similar looking pitch on record. A bright strip of green grass covered its middle, encompassing balls pitching anywhere from a short to good length, before a sharp cut off of brown dryness around the bowlers' follow-through zone at both ends.

You'd think yourself unlucky: pic.twitter.com/60AimgjcVI

— Nick Friend (@NickFriend1) August 20, 2026

The result was a fast paced scramble, where Glamorgan elected to field first and bowled the home side out for 151 amid time lost for heavy showers. After finishing up the innings on the morning of day two, it was the turn of the Glamorgan batters' to feel the force of the conditions.

Leicestershire's bowling attack cut threw them, taking five wickets in the first 20 overs of the innings, and reducing them to 69-6 after Tea. All but one of the wickets in Leicestershire's innings and the first six of Glamorgan's fell to pace, Ben Kellaway claiming the wicket of Hamza Shaikh – on Leicestershire first-class debut – in one of his two overs.

Why are Leicestershire preparing unprecedented pitches?

Leicestershire currently sit bottom of Division One, having won promotion last year. However, they're not so far adrift on points that they couldn't yet stay up. With six rounds to go, they're 17 points adrift of Yorkshire in the safe zone, and will play Yorkshire and Hampshire – who are only three points above them – in their remaining games. 

The purpose of cutting the pitch with such extreme contrasts in theory keeps all methods of bowling in the game. The longer patch of grass in the middle increases movement off the surface for seamers, while cutting the grass shorter at the ends allows for rough patches to develop in the follow through areas for the spinners to bowl at later in the game. 

In practice, it's allowed pacers to dominate in cloudy conditions with the movement off the surface on offer.

Could Leicestershire face sanctions for a below average surface

To face sanction, a county pitch must be rated 'below average' for execessive unevennes of bounce, or regular seam movement, on the first or second playing days, or lack of carry and/or bounce on the first or second playing days. At the start of this season, the ECB announced harsher penalties for below average pitches, with home teams now facing losing all points scored in matches played on sub-par pitches. No county has yet fallen foul of these harsher penalties, although the Cricket Regulator ruled in favour of Lancashire when they appealed the below average rating for their County Championship surface against Middlesex earlier this year. 

Pitches aren't based on looks, and it's important that the surface produced for Leicestershire's game against Glamorgan appears similar to the one they played on in their last Championship fixture at Grace Road, against Yorkshire in June. Leicestershire won that game, bowling Yorkshire out for 185 on day one. Spinners Ajaz Patel and Rehan Ahmed took three wickets between them in that innings, before Leicestershire responded with 453. 

Glamorgan, meanwhile, ended up with a one-run lead after their first innings, before Zain-ul-Hasan struck in the eighth over of Leicestershire's reply. The game is finely balanced, with neither side yet able to gain a dominant advantage over the other. If Leicestershire are to beat the odds and secure promotion, using non-traditional pitches could be a good method, if they can continue to avoid penalty.

Image credit – Leicestershire CCC & John Mallett

Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.