Legendary Indian cricketer, Sunil Gavaskar has defended the Ahmedabad pitch, saying that Rohit Sharma demonstrated how to bat on such pitches on which England lost by 10 wickets inside 2 days to go 2-1 down in the four-Test series earlier this week. Rohit top-scored for Team India in both innings, scoring 66 and 25 not out while Zak Crawley was the only other half-centurion for the visitors in the match.
Michael Vaughan
Former England captains such as Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, and Michael Vaughan came hard on the pitch conditions from the time England got bowled out for 112 in their first innings. But Gavaskar said the pitch, even though it was turning from Day 1, was not “treacherously challenging” and reckons that most of the batsmen got our while playing false shots against the spinners.
28 out of the 30 wickets were taken by spinners with batsmen from both teams failing to read the line and length on a pitch where some balls were turning while others went straight with the arm.
Sunil Gavaskar
Talking about pitch as per the quotes in the Indian Express, Sunil Gavaskar said, “It was not a pitch where the ball was misbehaving constantly. Nothing was kicking up alarmingly. Neither was there any great invariable bounce that the ball would shoot. Here, the bounce was actually true, almost. Yes, there was spin but Test match batsmen should be able to handle the turn or the straighter ones.”
He further added, “Challenging, but not treacherously challenging. If you look at the dismissals, the batsmen have contributed to their own downfall. More than the pitch, it was about the mindset which did them in. Rohit Sharma’s batting in both innings showed you could score runs on this pitch.”
Ahmedabad will also host the fourth and final Test scheduled to be commencing on March 4. For India, a draw in the final Test will be enough to secure their place in the WTC final against New Zealand. If they lose the match, also in Ahmedabad from March 4, Australia will play New Zealand in the June 18-22 contest.
