The Indian head coach Ravi Shastri trolled Michael Vaughan and the other critics as he heaped praises on the pitch curators at the Narendra Modi Stadium for preparing pitches that produced ‘fantastic entertainment’ in the last two matches in Ahmedabad.
The pitch at the Motera Stadium (now Narendra Modi Stadium) for the Pink-ball Test match received sharp criticism from several cricketers including the likes of Michael Vaughan after the visitors were bowled out for 112 and 81 runs in the day/night match.
While the England cricket team struggled on the spin-friendly pitch, on the other hand, team India claimed victories in the third and fourth Tests to finally qualify for the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in June.
After team India thrashed England for 135 runs to register a win by an innings and 25 runs in the fourth and the final Test match, the Indian head coach took a subtle dig at the critics as he heaped praises on the groundsman. He said:
“Why should I hold back? I attribute it to the groundsman. I think Ashish Bhowmick is an outstanding groundsman, he knows his job. He has learned it the hard way. He worked with Daljit Singh, who was a master curator. “
He added:
“Who will complain against a track like this? It is fantastic entertainment for both the teams and the game and the result 3-1 doesn’t really suggest how close the series was”
Ravi Shastri also praised the team for making it to the World Test Championship’s final. He said:
“For us to be on the top of the table in the World Test championship is two-and-a-half years of work and for those years to be successful, it’s been six years prior to that”
“The boys took one series at a time, they were not really bothered about the World Test Championship because the goal post gets shifted every time.”
“We were heading the table and some rule change came of the percentage system when we were not even playing but never mind all that, we have got 520 points, we deserve to be on top of the table and playing that final”
With several bilateral series being hit by the Coronavirus pandemic, the ICC had made a percentage of points earned as the criteria to determine the WTC’s standings. He said:
“It could have been different if we had a few more days off but no excuse. Boys were like zombies, they were tired and there was no crowd to cheer them on. Because everything was flat and so was the performance,”
He added:
“But then a kick on the back side to reignite the pride in the system can make a lot of difference and that showed in the last three Tests.”
