Ahmedabad,
The first 3 Tests against Australia drew criticism after the use of spin-friendly pitches and the result of the match in 3 days. Match referee Chris Pratt branded the Indore pitch as poor and awarded 3 demerit points. Indian team head coach Rahul Dravid said in an interview to reporters yesterday:-
The Indore pitch where the 3rd Test match was played by the ICC. You are asking about judging the competition referee as bad. I will not go too much into that matter. The referee has the right to share his opinion. It doesn’t matter whether I agree with his opinion or not.
But sometimes a World Test Championship point has to be played on pitches where results like this are available. This is what most countries want. Not only India but the whole world can see that playing in Test matches has become a challenge in the last few years. We have also played on some challenging pitches when we have played abroad.
For example, when South Africa was played in early 2022, the spin did not have an impact on the series. When playing on such pitches it is important to be aware of its quality and how to play properly. Even if one player plays well in the team, the course of the game will change.
Rohit Sharma’s performance (120 runs) in the Nagpur Test is a testimony to that. Not only that, you cannot expect a double century or a century on such difficult pitches. But a score of 50-60 or 70 can be a good score in such an environment.
Said Dravid.