Michael Vaughan slams Test pitches in India for being too batting friendly

It is that time of the year, right! The time of India’s home Test season. That time where the home team marches on its fortress and take forward what is an enviable record. It is also that time of the year when visiting teams come to India and the most used keyword used by them is the pitch and the conditions.

Will it turn from the first day? Will it be a dustbowl masquerading as Test match pitch or will it be as flat as a highway? But, like South Africa have found out this time, the pitches in their last tour was a bit of an aberration. Since then, barring the exception of perhaps Pune 2017, India has dished out fair pitches which assist the batsman on the first two days before the spinner and reverse-swing comes into play as the game progresses.

The first Test match in Vizag offered what would some say a ‘perfect’ Test match pitch. It had something to keep everyone interested. The batsman had runs for them if they were willing to dig in (5 hundreds in the match), seamers had reverse-swing to play with as Mohammed Shami showed on the last day and of-course the usual wear and turn for the spinners.

India pile on runs in Pune; Vaughan looks unhappy with the pitch

The ongoing Test match pitch in Pune has been good thus far. The seamers got prodigious lateral movement in the first two hours before settling in a beautiful batting surface. Team India has continued to pile on the agony on the visiting South Africans. The hosts posted a mammoth total of 601 runs, with captain Virat Kohli notching up his 26th Test ton and also registering his best Test score (254*).

However, the former England captain Michael Vaughan is not happy with the surfaces dished out so far in the series. He termed the pitches in India as ‘boring’ and felt there should be more in it for the bowlers from Day 1 and throughout to keep them interested. “Test Match Cricket pitches in India are boring … The first 3/4 days the contest is far too in favour of the Bat … needs more action for the bowler … My thought of the day … #INDvSA,” he tweeted.

Here’s his tweet:

Test Match Cricket pitches in India are boring … The first 3/4 days the contest is far too in favour of the Bat … needs more action for the bowler … My thought of the day … #INDvSA

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) October 11, 2019

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