India vs England: Sunil Gavaskar hits out at unfair criticism of Ahmedabad pitch

Even before the dust could settle down on the discussion surrounding the pitch used for the second Test between India and England, the pitch for the third Test in Ahmedabad has caused a huge debate in the cricketing fraternity. It took India less than two days to thrash the visitors as they won the game by ten wickets to take an unassailable lead in the four-match series.

Only 842 balls were enough to determine the fate of the Test as a total of 30 wickets fell in just over a day and a half. No team could touch the 150-run mark in the first three completed innings. After scoring 112 in the first innings, England were all out for just 81 in the second. India, on the other hand, were all out for 145 in their first innings before chasing down 49 with ease in the second innings to win the contest.

Following the game, the English cricket fraternity has slammed the nature of the pitch. Several former cricketers like Michael Vaughan, David Lloyd, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook have slammed the pitch. The likes of Vaughan and Lloyd have also criticised the ICC for not taking any action against India.

At the same time, some other former England cricketers such as Geoffrey Boycott, Michael Atherton, and Nasser Hussain did not blame the pitch but instead questioned England’s tactics and batting in the match.

Sunil Gavaskar weighs in with his views

With the debate over the pitch showing no signs of coming to an end, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has also weighed in with his views. The legendary batsman has opined that some of the “extreme criticism” of the pitch is not “really fair”.

“It’s a free world. They are entitled to their opinions. When you look at some of the more sober criticisms, you realise that some of the extreme criticism is not really fair. “As you say, Geoffrey, Nasser, and, Athers have spoken fairly. The rest of the criticism is not really worth taking your headphones off to listen to,” Sunil Gavaskar told The Indian Express.

Speaking further, Gavaskar gave his assessment on the pitch. The former cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that the ball was not misbehaving constantly on the pitch. Gavaskar said that the pitch was challenging but not ‘treacherously challenging’. He also made it clear that the batsmen have only themselves to blame for their poor show.

“It was not a pitch where the ball was misbehaving constantly. Nothing was kicking up alarmingly. Neither was there any great invariable bounce that the ball would shoot. Here, the bounce was actually true, almost. Yes, there was spin but Test match batsmen should be able to handle the turn or the straighter ones,” said Gavaskar.

“Challenging, but not treacherously challenging. If you look at the dismissals, the batsmen have contributed to their own downfall. More than the pitch, it was about the mindset which did them in. Rohit Sharma’s batting in both innings showed you could score runs on this pitch,” he concluded.