India legend gives savage '2018-19 and 2020-21' series reminder in reply to Ian Healy's 'unfair' pitch comment
Former Australia cricketer Ian Healy's recent dig at the BCCI on Indian pitches did not go down well with a legendary India cricketer as he served Healy with a brutal “2018-19 and 2020-21” series reminder.
Veteran India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was right about Ian Healy's comment. It did create a “spark”. The former Australia cricketer's recent dig at the BCCI on the pitches provided by India for the Border-Gavaskar Test series has created quite a stir with most criticising the remark. Legendary India cricketer Venkatesh Prasad has been the latest to join the bandwagon as he served Healy with a brutal “2018-19 and 2020-21” series reminder.
In making his prediction on the much-awaited Test series between India and Australia, Healy, in conversation on 'SENQ Breakfast', said that Pat Cummins and Co. can pull off an upset in "fair" conditions, but their forgettable streak in India is likely to continue if India produce "unfair" wickets.
"I think if they produce fair Indian wickets, that are good batting wickets, to start with, (that) probably spin and spin pretty consistently but spin a long way, late in the match … we (Australia) win. I'm worried about (Mitchell) Starc and (Nathan) Lyon in the first Test … if they're unfair wickets which I've seen in the last series, where balls were jumping ridiculously and sliding down low from day one, I think India play those conditions better than us," he had said.
Reacting on Twitter to Healy's comment, Prasad gave him a savage reminder of the 2018/19 and 2020/21 series in which India scripted a sensational piece of history in their back-to-back series win Down Under against Australia, questioning if the hosts chose to lose by creating "unfair" pitches for India.
“So Australia prepared unfair pitches against India in 2018-19 and 2020-21 to lose both test series at their home,” he tweeted.
Earlier on Friday, speaking on his YiuTube channel, Ashwin had opined that Healy's remark “has set a spark”, a much-needed one before the start of the Border-Gavaskar series.
"Healy's quote has set a spark with this take. It's Border-Gavaskar Trophy guys. So we need this spark, right? Besides, banters will keep coming from the Australian camp for sure. We saw what Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja had to say. Eben Marnus Labuschagne and Matt Renshaw have said some controversial things. Renshaw said that you need to analyse a few things in India like who is taking the new ball and stuff," he said.
