Legendary Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar has come hard on the people criticizing the pitch at the MA Chidambaram stadium in the second Test between India and England. As many as 15 wickets fell on Day 2 of the Test as the visiting team was bundled out for 134 in their 1st innings. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin starred with the ball again as he took his 29th five-wicket haul in the longest format.
But the “double-standards” of those having problems with the wicket has not gone well with Sunil Gavaskar. He said, “We saw how Rohit Sharma getting 150, and yesterday he was getting close to ball and batting. This criticism (on pitch) is pretty warranted.”
On the other hand, former English cricketer, Mark Butcher said, “Few people trying to make the point no matter who is on top, the ball should not be going through the top of the surface from Day 1 of a Test match. Is that what the tweets are about?”
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While Gavaskar further added, “Some of them are saying that – but you have a seeming pitch in England. Australia get dismissed for 46 – the ball keeps seeming all throughout. No one talks about that. Yes. One or two who we know who don’t like India, who don’t like England. We ignore them because we know the double standards. But basically, we saw with Rohit Sharma’s innings, if pitch was impossible, nobody would have scored 330.”
Sunil Gavaskar was of the opinion that the pitch isn’t unplayable, but a challenging one, and that’s what cricket should be about. He feels that before making an opinion on such a pitch.
The batting legend explained, “There are some who are forever complaining about this, that or the other. Yes, it’s a challenging pitch. Rohit Sharma showed in the first innings. You can argue that maybe England spinners are not as good as Ashwin. That they did not bowl the lines and length that Ashwin or Axar did. That really should be the debate rather than the pitch.”
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Virat Kohli (62 off 149) and Ashwin (103* off 136) have taken India to a huge total and taken the team’s lead of more than 400 runs on Monday.
