India’s second innings capitulation has again raised serious questions over their obsession with spin-friendly surfaces on which their own batters have struggled to get going. Against South Africa in Kolkata, they failed to chase a small target of 124 for a 30-run defeat which is their fourth Test defeat at home in just over a year.
While head coach Gautam Gambhir maintains that the pitch wasn’t unplayable and instead blamed his batters for not being able to show the application to score on a challenging pitch, former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara feels otherwise and feels that “better” pitches are the need of the hour.
Pujara, a batting mainstay in Test cricket during his playing career, wants a pitch on which a batter gets the fruit of his labour
while pointing out how luck becomes the decisive factor on rank turners.
“Luck plays a major part when you are playing on a rank turner,” Pujara was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “What India needs to do is start playing on a slightly better pitch. I’m not saying that you don’t play on a turning track. You always did that, support for the bowlers that they are getting some assistance from the pitch. But it has to be a pitch where you should be able, if you are playing well, if you’re working hard, if you are reacting well, you should be able to score 100.”
“You need to play on a pitch where you have a chance. You are giving yourself the best chance. If you are skilful, your skill should come out,” he added.
Pujara noted how post-pandemic, the Test matches in India aren’t lasting five or even four days which he blames on rank turners. “When you start playing on rank turners, which India has done since 2020, a majority of the games, I would say 70 or 80% of the games have been played on a pitch where the result has been in three days, within the three days of a five-day match.”
“It’s important that India plays on a pitch where the results are on Day Four, Day Five, which is a slightly better pitch to bat on in the first innings. And as you get into the second innings, the ball starts turning a bit more, it becomes very challenging,” he added.
