Image Source : GETTY IMAGES File photograph of Sunil Gavaskar.
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar on Monday hit again at former cricketers, together with Michael Vaughan and Mark Waugh for his or her criticism of the MA Chidambaram pitch within the ongoing second Test between India and England, saying that “its a challenging wicket but not unplayable” and that some persons are all the time complaining.
As many as 15 wickets fell on Day Two of the Test match, together with 10 of England’s who have been bowled out for 134 in reply to India’s 329.
Gavaskar feels the pitch is “not unplayable” in any respect, as confirmed by Rohit Sharma who scored an excellent 161 within the first innings.
“We saw how Rohit Sharma getting 150, and yesterday he was getting close to ball and batting. This criticism (on pitch) is pretty unwarranted,” Gavaskar mentioned throughout a dialog with former England cricketer Mark Butcher on Star Sports.
“Few people trying to make the point no matter who is on top, the ball should not be going through the top of the surface from Day 1 of a Test match. Is that what the tweets are about?” mentioned Butcher.
“Some of them are saying that — but you have a seeming pitch in England. Australia get dismissed for 46 — the ball keeps seeming all throughout. No one talks about that. It’s always about Indian pitches, and when the ball starts to turn, people pose a problem,” added Gavaskar.
“Australians do moan about that a lot, I admit,” Butcher mentioned.
While criticising the pitch, Vaughan had tweeted: “It’s entertaining cricket as things are happening all the time but let’s be honest this pitch is a shocker…Not making any excuses as India have been better but this isn’t a Test Match 5 day prepared pitch.”
“I’m all for a good contest between bat and ball in test match cricket but this pitch in Chennai is unacceptable at test match level. You can’t have the ball going through the top of the surface on day 1 from the main part of the pitch Ie (i.e.) not from the footmarks,” Waugh had mentioned on the micro-blogging web site.
Gavaskar mentioned that had the pitch been unplayable, India would not have been capable of publish a complete in extra of 300 of their first innings.
“One or two who we know who don’t like India, who don’t like England, so they always be having a go at India and England, so that’s fine. We ignore them because we know the double standards. But basically, we saw with Rohit Sharma’s innings, if pitch was impossible, nobody would have scored 330,” mentioned the previous India captain.
“It’s not unplayable. It’s a challenging pitch, and that’s what cricket should be about. In the first Test, on the first two days, when nothing was happening, people were saying ‘it’s boring, nothing is happening. It’s so easy to bat.’ So, there has to be a bit of balance between what is said. You cannot be complaining all the time,” he added.
The 71-year-old additional mentioned that the purpose that may be argued is the distinction in high quality of spinners of the 2 groups.
“You can argue that maybe England spinners are not as good as Ashwin. That they did not bowl the lines and length that Ashwin or Axar did. But you have to also argue that who has got the better technique when it comes to batting and who has the better skills when it comes to bowling. That really should be the debate rather than the pitch,” mentioned Gavaskar.
