Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has bluntly called out the critics for their double standards when it comes to rating the pitches in India and outside India.
India won the second Test match against South Africa by seven wickets at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town in the 2nd Session of Day 2 of the match. With just 107 overs being bowled in the Test, it was the shortest Test in cricket history as far as completed matches are concerned.
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Indian pitches are often criticised for their excessive spin-friendly nature which sees wickets tumble in quick succession, significantly reducing the duration of the Test match.
The Indian skipper, however, was not ready to take any of that moving forward and served a fiery reminder to all the naysayers that there shouldn't be any double standards.
MORE: Every record broken in the Cape Town Test between South Africa and India
What did Rohit Sharma say?
Speaking to the presenter in the post-match presentation ceremony, Rohit didn't mince his words, asking everyone to "shut up when in India".
I mean, we saw what happened in this match, how the pitch played and stuff like that. I honestly don't mind playing on pitches like this. As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and don't talk too much about Indian pitches, honestly.
Because you come here [in Test cricket] to challenge yourself. Yes, it is dangerous. It is challenging. So, and when people come to India, it is again pretty challenging as well. Look, when you are here to play Test cricket, we talk about Test cricket, the ultimate prize, Test cricket being the pinnacle and stuff like that. I think it's important that we also stand by it.
When you are put up against, a challenge like that, you come and face it. That's what happens in India, but, in India on day one, if the pitch starts turning, people start talking about 'Puff of dust! Puff of dust!' There's so much crack here on the pitch. People are not looking at that.
As if that wasn't enough, Rohit went further and singled out the match referees who gave poor ratings to some of the pitches curated for the 2023 World Cup, which was held in India.
I think it's important that we stay neutral everywhere we go. Especially the match referees. You know, some of these match referees need to keep their eye on how they rate pitches. It's quite important.
I still can't believe that the World Cup final pitch was rated below average. A batsman got a hundred there in the final. How can that be a poor pitch? So these are the things the ICC, the match referees, they need to look into and start rating pitches based on what they see, not based on the countries. I think that's quite important.
So I hope they keep their ears open, they keep their eyes open and look into those aspects of the game. Honestly, I'm all for pitches like this. We want to challenge playing on pitches like this. We pride ourselves playing on pitches like this. Uh, but all I wanna say is be neutral.
In the second Test, not a single ball of spin was bowled at the Newlands Cricket Ground, with seam bowling dominating out and out. Rohit used this example to strike a comparison to the Indian pitches, where seam bowling takes a backseat at the expense of spin bowling due to the spin-friendly conditions.
Honestly, I would like to see how the pitches are rated. I want to see that. Whatever that chart is, I would love to see it, how they rate the pitches, because Mumbai, Bangalore, Cape Town, Centurion, all different venues, overhead conditions are different. The pitches deteriorate quite fast when the sun is beating down that hard on the pitch.
And in India as well, we know that the conditions in India will spin without a doubt, but obviously people don't like it because it spins from day one. B7ut that's not the point. If the ball seams from ball one, that's okay, right, for everyone? That's not fair. The ball starts spinning from ball one, it should be okay, in my opinion.
Otherwise, you stay neutral, and you start rating these kind of pitches also bad, because if you want the ball only to seam and not turn, in my opinion, that is absolutely wrong. So that's my judgment, that's my opinion on it. I'll stick by it because I've seen enough of cricket now and I've seen enough of how these match referees and the ICC looks into these ratings. I have no issues in how they want to rate, but stay neutral to everything that you do.
Was Rohit Sharma correct to slam critics?
Rohit's criticism makes a lot of sense considering all 20 wickets in the Cape Town Test were taken by Indian seamers, while the South African seamers scalped nine wickets in India's first innings (one wicket came via a run out).
In March 2023, the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore was given a poor match rating after just 547 runs were scored in a Test between India and Australia.
Of the 31 wickets that fell in that Test, 26 wickets (83.87%) were taken by spinners. The game ended within three days.
Sunil Gavaskar, while speaking on Star Sports, echoed Rohit's sentiments and bashed the SENA media for being too cynical of Indian pitches.
This is what test cricket is all about. You are going to be tested. And I honestly believe I've always believed that if you cannot play on pitches where the ball turns into the batter, you know there is a tendency amongst the SENA country's media, particularly if you think that you know, if you can't play on fast, bouncy pitches, you're not a batter."
I'm sorry. You are not a batter if you can't play the turning pitch because over here for the bouncy pitch, there are two movements here. There for four spinners, where the ball is turning, you've got to go down the pitch. You've got to use the crease. All the shots can be exhibited.
So that's you know what? I think, sadly, you know, our media should be actually writing about this. You know, our media should be talking about the fact that you know, but our media is so dependent sometimes not all the time on getting interviews with players, so they do not want to upset anybody. So they will not question the batting ability of some of the overseas guys because of that. But that's the way.
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