India’s veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has hit out at the criticism of the third Test match at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. The Test match was wrapped up within two days, making it the shortest ever game since 1935. Only 387 were scored in the 140.2 overs and 30 wickets were taken.
Ashwin, who scalped seven wickets in the game, believes the talk regarding the pitch is getting out of hand. The experienced off-spinner stated that the Indian team never complains about the kind of pitches they get in overseas conditions. Ashwin gave the example of New Zealand pitches where the two Test matches were over within five days.
The ball was turning square in Ahmedabad and it was challenging conditions. However, a total of 21 wickets out of 30 was either bowled or lbw and thus the batsmen from both teams failed to execute their skills.
Axar Patel scalped 11 wickets whereas Ashwin once again troubled the England batsmen. England was bundled out for 112 runs in the first innings after winning the toss whereas the visitors could only manage 81 runs in the second essay. Furthermore, the hosts could only rack up 145 runs in their first innings as both the teams collapsed like a pack of cards.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I am not here to say that your opinion is right or wrong. But the talk about the surface is getting out of hand. Is there any instance where the pitch has been talked about this much when we have played in other countries?
“We have been to New Zealand, where both the Tests got over in a total of 5 days. There is a video doing the rounds where Virat Kohli is talking in South Africa and he says I am not here to talk about the pitch. That is how we have been taught to play cricket.
“The bowler wins the game, the batsmen need to bat well to score runs. Who defines what a good surface is? The seam on the first day, then bat well in the next couple of days and spin on the last two days, who makes these rules?
A lot of cricket boffins, including Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook, and David Lloyd have criticized the pitch. However, there is no doubt that the visitors have lacked the application and they haven’t been able to come up with better execution against the Indian spinners.
The fourth Test match will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium from March 4.
