For a large part of this ongoing four-match Test series between India and England, there has been a lot of talk around the pitches. In the first Test, the 22-yard surface at Chepauk was a placid one on the first two days before it broke down and assisted the spinners. In the second and third Test, spinners were in play very early in the game and the ball turned from the very first day.
Spinners have made merry in the second and third Test. Out of the 70 wickets to fall in those two Test matches, spinners had taken 60 of those wickets, with Axar Patel taking 18 and Ravichandran Ashwin accounting for 15 wickets. Thus, there has been a massive debate on whether the pitches have been poor, especially in the third Test, which was a pink-ball one and ended inside two days.
The Indian contingent felt it was more to do with poor batting rather than anything else. Indian skipper Virat Kohli felt the Ahmedabad wicket was a ‘good pitch to bat on’. He thought the quality of batting from both sides wasn’t up to the mark.
Rohit Sharma resonated with his captain’s opinions. The Mumbai-born opening batsman felt there were no demons in the pitch, and it wasn’t a bad one to bat on either. He termed it as a ‘typical Indian track’. In fact, Rohit has been the best batsman across the last two Test matches. He scored 161 and 26 in the second Test in Chennai and backed that up with 66 & 25 not out in the third Test in Ahmedabad.
The pitch was completely fine. It seemed like a very normal pitch to me. It was a typical Indian wicket where it turned and the odd ball might come in. That’s what Indian wickets are all about. We made mistakes from our side, and needed to understand which shots to play. In Chennai, we saw every ball was turning from the rough. There was no rough here. Axar (Patel) got most of his wickets with deliveries, which were just skidding onto the bat and the batsmen just missed the line. We did the same. Some of the shots we played as a batting unit were not up to the skills we have.
Rohit Sharma was quoted saying in the post-match online press conference.
There were also concerns around how the pink SG ball would play as there had been just one day-night Test match before this in India. That was in Kolkata in November 2019, and Bangladesh were rolled over in two and a half days in that game. The Indian fast bowlers had dominated that game, taking 19 wickets. Rohit revealed that the team had little idea on how the pitch and the pink-ball would play out for the spinners.
We pretty much had no idea what it’s (pink ball) going to do to the spinners. So, it was good to understand the pace of the (SG) pink ball. When you play the red ball, it doesn’t come so quickly onto the bat. Whenever we play the next one, we need to make slight adjustments against the pink ball. It’s (also) got to do with the conditions in the evening. The temperature goes down a degree or two, plus there’s the dew factor as well. But all in all, the pace of the pink ball is slightly quicker than the red ball. It is something that we need to adjust to as quickly as possible and understand what we need to do. (Because) whenever we play a pink-ball Test in India, it is going to behave like that.
Rohit added.
The fourth and final Test match starts on the 4th of March in Ahmedabad, and this is going to be a day game.
