'Indians batted believing 'Humein toh out hi hona hai'': Gavaskar slams 'worst' Indore pitch after ICC's 'poor' rating
To add to ICC's rating, Gavaskar passed his own verdict on the Indore pitch, calling it the worst among the three venues on which the India vs Australia Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy have been played on so far.
The verdict is out. Then pitch in Indore's Holkar Stadium which hosted the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia has officially been given a 'poor' rating. And truth be told, it was always coming. With a total of 30 wickets falling on the first two days of the Test, there was no going back. Still though, after India's nine-wicket defeat to Australia, Rohit Sharma defended the pitch to the hilt, claiming that it was a collective call to choose such surfaces. But at the end of the day, the very decision came back to haunt India as their batters succumbed to the top-quality spin of Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann, both of whom registered five-wicket-hauls in each innings of the Test.
The debate over pitches in India is a never-ending one, and adding his two cents on the raging topic is the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. The former captain, who has batted on the toughest of wickets including Australia and West Indies, believes that a big reason why India lost was their underwhelming batting. Once the home were shot down for 109 in the first innings, and later did not show application to get bowled out for 163 in the second, the writing was pretty much on the wall.
"If after winning the toss, you get all out for 109, you clearly don't have the runs to give your bowlers attacking fields. You will always be under pressure. Had they scored 180, it would have been different. So that is one reason, And secondly, in the second innings as well, Indians batted believing that 'Iss pitch pe, humein toh out hi hona hai (We eventually have to get out on this pitch). So why not play a few shots and try to score runs. First Cheteshwar Pujara, and then Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne showed that if you play with a straight bat, you may get beaten, but playing with patience can give you runs," Gavaskar told Sports Tak.
To add to ICC's rating, Gavaskar passed his own verdict on the Indore pitch, calling it the worst among the three venues on which the BGT has been played so far. The surfaces in Nagpur and Delhi were no cakewalk for batter, but at least those got tougher to bat on with time. Contrastingly in Indore, there was vicious turn on offer from the first half and hour of Day 1. India lost 7 wickets for 84 runs in the opening session of the Test, while Australia lost 6 for 11 runs before lunch on Day 2. Still, if there was one team that showed a semblance of authority on this pitch, it was Australia, who disdainfully chased down 76 to pull one back at India. This proves, as Gavaskar too underlines, that irrespective of how bad a pitch is, batting patiently along with the right approach can help one survive.
"That is their tactic. They thought that if they want to win matches and reach the final of the World Test Championship, they would like batting on such pitches. India won the first two matches before lost this one, but I feel that among all three Tests, this pitch [In Indore] was the worst. Nagpur and Delhi pitches had some turn but not as much as what we saw in the first half hour of the match. There was dust popping as well when the ball landed. This was a bad pitch, and any batter on this surface would have struggled," he added.
