Former England skipper Alastair Cook, who is one of England’s all-time greats, also weighed-in his opinion about the ongoing debate about the pitch for the Motera Stadium and has slammed the Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
The third test match between India and England was concluded within two days at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, which has led to widespread criticism of the pitch presented to both teams. Batsmen from both the teams failed to perform at the pitch and because of the same reason a debate kickstarted in the cricket fraternity regarding the pitch.
The likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, England’s skipper Joe Root and Indian skipper Virat Kohli gave their opinions on the surface in the pink-ball Test match. While there are many who have refused to blame the pitch, on the other hand, the Indian skipper Virat Kohli refused to blame the pitch. He had said:
However, seems like the statement of Virat didn’t go down well with the former England’s skipper Alastair Cook, who slammed him for favoring BCCI. He said:
“Virat Kohli’s come out and defended the wicket almost as if it’s a BCCI thing — it cannot possibly be the wicket. Yet it was so hard to bat on that. So hard,”
He added:
“Take the wicket out and blame the batsmen? We’ve got Virat Kohli, Joe Root, we have some great players of spin. Yes, we’ve got some people who have got to learn to play spin better, but we have got great players of spin also struggling.”
Cook further opined that it would be interesting to see the difference in the game with the red-ball in the upcoming fourth and the last test match. He said:
“To me it’d be great to have that game with the red ball to see the difference when the ball is skidding on. Today trying to play properly, it was nigh-on impossible.”
He added:
“We saw a stat that says this pitch has spun more than any other pitch in India. There’s been so many other balls that have gone straight on as well. So that means when it is turning, it is turning miles. When you see the highlights and the ball skidding on you, we don’t see the build-up: when the exact same ball is spinning miles.”
