'Former cricketers didn't play on these pitches': Rohit Sharma silences experts with blistering reply after Indore loss
Amid the rising criticism, India skipper Rohit was asked to assess the Indore pitch after another three-day finish to a Test match and he responded in blistering manner
There was an avalanche of outrage on Wednesday morning when the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series between India and Australia began in Indore. Ex-cricketers like Matthew Hayden, Mark Waugh Michael Clark went on a rant, expressing their displeasure at the Holkar Stadium pitch with the former highlight "4.8 degrees of turn" as 14 wickets fell on Day 1 and 16 on the second day with neither side managing more than 200 runs in an innings. India skipper Rohit Sharma silenced the talk around India pitch with a rather blistering reply moments after the hosts suffered a nine-wicket loss in third Test.
India's first innings lasted just a little over a session on the opening day as they were folded for 109 runs. Albeit sneaking a lead, Australia lost 4 wickets at the close of Day 1. They lost their final six wickets in just 22.3 overs on the second morning before India were reduced to 163 in dramatic fashion at the close of Day 2.
Amid the rising criticism, India skipper Rohit was asked to assess the Indore pitch after another three-day finish to a Test match and he responded in blistering manner saying that none of those former cricketers ever played on pitches like this. He further explained that it was a collective decision from the Indian team to play on such surfaces despite knowing the challenges and opined that had the team not produced results, there would be an introspection.
“Former cricketers did not play on pitches like this. So I don't know. Like I said, this is the kind of pitch we wanted to play in and this is our strength. When you play in home, you want to play to your strength and not worry about what people outside are speaking about. And had we not gotten results, we would have thought otherwise,” he said.
Rohit also expressed his displeasure at the constant talk around pitches after every match and said that he would rather be interested in talking about Nathan Lyon, who picked 13 wickets to claim the Player of the Match award, or performance of batters like Cheteshwar Pujara and Usman Khawaja in the Indore Test.
“This pitch talk is getting too much. Every time we play in India, the focus is only on pitch. Why are people not asking me about Nathan Lyon and how well he bowled? Or, how well Pujara batted in the second innings? Or, how well Usman Khawaja played? Those are the things I can give you a details on, but not on pitch because it is absolutely not necessary,” he said.
