“Australia has deceived me, personally. As Australia’s history goes by, they say, ‘we are gonna have a bat, mate!’ after winning the toss in the big finals. I was praying to the lords that Australia should do that, because many people do not understand that the soil in Ahmedabad was like Orissa’s, as in, it played like how any soil taken from the eastern part of the country would play. If every pitch gets a bounce until the knee, this will get bounce only up to the shin. So, the bounce will be less but the soil won’t disintegrate because the clay does not release the moisture but holds it,” said Ravichandran Ashwin.
“I was checking out if the pitch was disintegrating at the mid-innings and I met George Bailey, the chief selector. I asked, ‘why didn’t you guys bat first like you always do after winning the toss?’ For that, he answered back, ‘We have played IPL and bilateral series for a long time now, and in our experience, the red soil disintegrates but the black soil gets better to bat on under lights. Dew is not a big impact on red soil whereas black soil pitches are good turners in afternoon, but in night, the pitch solidifies into a patta wicket and plays as though it is made of concrete’, he stated.
“I was flabbergasted listening to that. See, what is happening is that all the experience from the IPL and the bilateral series… India is becoming a central hub of world cricket. They can read the pitch perfectly,” he added.