Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden unhappy with the quality of the pitches

Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden feels that the quality of the pitches that has been used in the series thus far has been below the usual standards of the pitches elsewhere. Hayden who is a part of the commentary team for Australia’s tour of India has been a heavy critic of the pitches that were prepared for the opening two games of the test series.

The Pune pitch has been given a poor rating by the International Cricket Council due to the imbalance with the bat and the ball. The bowlers had a better shot at the cracks starting right from the Day 1 of the Test. BCCI are yet to respond to the ICC’s claim of the pitch being substandard and poor.

“I have already said that the Test matches were on substandard pitches. It’s strange because India is good enough to play on good surfaces which naturally break up and start to turn. The fact that Lyon took eight in the first innings of a Test match says it all,” said Hayden.

It was not the first time in this summer that a test in India has got over in the span of days. The first such occurrence in the long home season being the famous Nagpur test where the South African team were bundled out cheaply. The inconsistency between the bat and the ball has been the major talk of the long summer, apart from India’s team long unbeaten streak.

Australia tour of India:

The test series is tied at one a piece with India gaining an edge over the Aussies in the 2nd test match of the series. The first test match, which was played in Pune was completed in the short span of 3 days while the following test at Bengaluru was completed in four days.

Both the test match had their share of controversy with the Pune pitch assisting the spinners more than the latter which was favouring both the seamers and the spinners.

“Nice Gary” was a constant chirp as Nathan Lyon created history as he picked up eight wickets in the first innings of the second test. His bowling figure of 8-50 also became the best by a visiting bowler on Indian soil. In the Pune test, it was his partner Steve O’Keefe who stunned the batting line-up with figures of 6-35 in both the innings.

What’s wrong?

The quality of Indian pitches has come under heavy scrutiny and criticisms from the past two years. The rank turner against South Africa in Nagpur was termed poor and now the Pune pitch too like its former has been rated poor by the ICC.

Hayden also went on to talk about the “cheatgate” controversy which struck the 2nd Test between the two sides. He said there is a lot which has been spoken about it and he hopes for a peaceful resolution to the issue between the two sides with cricket being the ultimate winner.

Both these sides will travel to Ranchi to play the 3rd test from the 16th of March followed by the last test of the long home season at Dharamsala which starts from the 25th of March.