India captain Rohit Sharma said he didn’t mind playing on Cape Town-style pitches as long as other teams didn’t moan about the spinning conditions in India. The second test match against South Africa concluded after only 107 overs bowled in one and a half days, as Men In Blue levelled the series in Rainbow Nation.
Several Cricket experts and fans felt that the surface in Cape Town highly favoured the bowlers. In the shortest completed Test in terms of balls bowled India won by seven wickets shortly after lunchtime on Day 2. In the second game in Cape Town, both teams’ pacers exaggerated seam movement and erratic bounce, as 33 wickets fell inside two days.
Speaking to the media after the game, Rohit Sharma stated that the Indian team is fine with playing in these conditions if everyone stops judging Indian pitches and feels that pitches cannot be considered below average if a batter gets a century on the track, pointing to Travis Head’s match-winning performance in the ODI World Cup 2023.
“I don’t mind playing on pitches like this as long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and doesn’t complain about Indian pitches. You come here to challenge yourself. And when people come to India it is challenging as well.”
“I still can’t believe that the World Cup final was rated below average. A batter got a hundred. How can that be a poor pitch?” Rohit Sharma said.
Due to India’s supremacy at home conditions, there has been a lot of uproar about the pitches recently. The surfaces in India usually receive criticism from renowned cricket who generally refer to Indian and subcontinent pitches as unfriendly for test cricket, when matches are completed in three days on spin-friendly wickets.
I Would Love To See The Chart Match Referees Prepare While Rating Pitches – Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma slammed the International Cricket Council (ICC) for their treatment of pitches in international cricket and questioned about standards in rating the pitches.
“I would love to see the chart match referees prepare while rating pitches. We know in India ball spins from Day 1, you are not okay. When ball seams from Day 1, you are okay. That’s not okay,” Rohit Sharma added.
Both swing and seam movement were evident in the first session of the Cape Town Test match. The pitch issued varied bounces from Day 1, with in South Africa being bundled out for 55 runs in one session of the match. The Men in Blue struggled in their first innings, being bowled out for 153 after a spectacular collapse on Day 1.
South African batters were once again challenged by the inconsistent bounce in the second innings, as no batter scored more than 15 runs, except Aiden Markram. Proteas side set a target of 79 as India won the game by completing the chase in 12 overs.
