India captain Rohit Sharma seems to have had enough of the former cricketers chattering constantly about the pitches that India have produced over the past couple of years.
In the aftermath of India’s 9-wicket loss in the Indore Test, which ended in the first couple of hours of Day 3, the Indian skipper had a go at the ex-players for their regular comments on the spin-friendly Indian pitches which are extremely challenging for batting.
30 wickets fell on the first two days of the Indore Test. The previous two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, in Nagpur and Delhi, also ended inside 3 days.
Since 2021, when the victories became all the more necessary because of the WTC points at stake, India have made rank-turners in all their home Tests, and have lost only two Tests.
The Indore pitch was even on the extreme side: in the 6th over of the match, Rohit was dismissed by a delivery from Kuhnemann that spun over 8 degrees!
This pitch talk is getting too much: Rohit Sharma
Amid the high criticism of the Indian pitches, Rohit Sharma has come out and responded fiercely to the ex-cricketers, saying that they didn’t play on such pitches.
Frustrated with the pitch talks, Sharma bluntly stated that this is India’s strength – on which they have built the entire country as their fortress having not lost a single Test series in 10 years.
“Former cricketers did not play on pitches like this. So I don’t know. Like I said, this is the kind of pitch we wanted to play in and this is our strength. When you play in home, you want to play to your strength and not worry about what people outside are speaking about. And had we not gotten results, we would have thought otherwise,” he said.
“This pitch talk is getting too much. Every time we play in India, the focus is only on pitch. Why are people not asking me about Nathan Lyon and how well he bowled? Or, how well Pujara batted in the second innings? Or, how well Usman Khawaja played? Those are the things I can give you a details on, but not on pitch because it is absolutely not necessary,” he said.
While Australia have sealed their spot in the WTC final, India need to win the fourth Test in Ahmedabad to book theirs.
