Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh launched a scathing attack on the Indian team management, stating that the team management had been getting ‘spin-friendly pitches’ which ended up getting the game over within two to three days. Pitches in India have become a talking point in the recent past, especially when big teams such as Australia and England come to tour.
“It doesn’t help the visiting teams and neither does it help the India batters when they go on tours, and find themselves playing on such wickets,” said Harbhajan Singh. Usually, the management comes up with pitches that might highly favour the home team, full of spins, which becomes tough for the touring side.
But Harbhajan Singh feels it comes at a cost. Even India’s top batters, including Virat Kohli, have seen a fall in form on these challenging surfaces. Excluding openers, in fact, only Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja have averaged over 40 in home Tests since 2020 among players who have played more than eight matches.
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The problem, according to Harbhajan Singh, is with the nature of the pitches that are being used. He feels that pressure on captains to win Tests within three days or so has meant pitches produced that turn square very early in a match, which does not allow batters much of an opportunity to get set and bat long.
“We have begun playing on pitches that turn a lot more. We wanted to win and we did win, but we wanted to win in two and a half days”, Harbhajan Singh said in an interview to Sports Tak. He added, ‘If India could prepare normal pitches which would start turning on Day 3 or Day 4, the team was still going to win, but the batters would have a decent chance of building confidence’.
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Harbhajan also underlined that management should trust their bowlers a bit more as the bowling battery is good enough to win them matches on better-balanced pitches. “If we play on good pitches, I don’t think anyone can beat India. Our pacers and spinners are capable of winning Tests on Day 5 if needed,” he signed off.
