Despite some intense cricketing action on the field, the topic of the ‘pitch’ has undoubtedly been the favorite one for discussion in the ongoing BGT 2023 series. The Indian pitches have once again come under fire this time, the home team was bowled out for 109 and 163 in the first and second innings, respectively.
The surface of the third test in Indore had a sharper turn and an unbalanced bounce, which made the run-scoring pattern worse than it was in Nagpur and Delhi. The Indian board, players, and coaches were reprimanded for meddling with the pitch-making process.
“Prepare pitches that suit India”-Ian Chappell
Immediately following Australia’s nine-wicket victory over India in the third Test match, Ian Chappell, former Australia captain took the chance to criticize India for creating a highly turning surface in Indore. He also replayed the fact that India had earlier triumphed by a score of 2-1 on challenging pitches in Australia during the 2018-19 and 2020-21 series.
“India needs to see the error in their ways. Talking about trying to prepare pitches that suit India.” said Ian Chappell.
“Have India forgotten that they won the last two Test series in Australia? What the hell the administrators, players, coaches, or anybody outside the curator (were doing?)? What the hell are they having an input into the pitch for?” he added.
3 day Test match, a good advert for Test Cricket?
3 matches, 3 days! The last three matches in the series also showed how Test cricket is now quickly becoming a three-day affair. Is it the pitches or the player’s skills to be blamed?
When asked about the slight shift, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was quick to point out that the change is not exclusive to India, Test matches in the SENA nations too have not seen the 4th day of play in recent times. The opener also mentioned the recently concluded PAK vs ENG series, where the matches stretched to five days, however, were called as boring.