Image Source : BCCI Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma
Wearing sneakers with rubber soles, assured footwork and correct shot-selection are the keys to success for batsmen on a “rank turner” just like the Motera pitch, feels Mohammed Azharuddin, a former India captain and one of many most interesting gamers of spin.
Azharuddin made an attention-grabbing statement in a collection of tweets after India crushed England inside two days within the third Test.
The 58-year-old recommended that carrying sneakers with rubber soles might be a greater possibility than those having spikes.
“It makes little sense to wear spikes when batting. Rubber soles don’t hamper the ability of batsmen. I have seen some amazing Test knocks being played on tough surfaces by batsmen who wore shoes with rubber soles,” Azharuddin tweeted.
“The argument that batsmen can slip when operating between wickets is countered by the truth that in Wimbledon, all tennis gamers put on sneakers with rubber soles.
“And the ones that come to mind are not just Indians like Sunil Gavaskar Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar but also many a visiting batsman like Sir Vivian Richards, Mike Gatting Allan Border, Clive Lloyd and several others.”
Azharuddin, who performed 99 Tests and 334 ODIs between 1985 and 2000, was dissatisfied with the batsmen’s abject give up.
“It was disappointing to watch the batsmen come a cropper in Ahmedabad Test. The key to batting on such dry tracks and rank turners is shot-selection and assured footwork,”
Only two batsmen — one every from either side — may rating a half century as 28 wickets fell to the spinners on a Motera pitch that many gamers felt was not ideally suited for a Test match.
The likes of Sunil Gavaskar, nonetheless, credited the spinners fairly than blaming the pitch.
