Indian legend hits back at Aussie pitch concerns

1 year ago 52

Former Indian manager Ravi Shastri has deed backmost astatine suggestions that the transportation for the archetypal Test against Australia has been doctored to favour the location side, calling claims of pitch-doctoring "bulls--t".

India is celebrated for having home-friendly pitches successful Test matches, and pictures of the aboveground successful Nagpur up of the archetypal Test resulted successful fears implicit an unfair vantage for the location side.

However, Shastri suggested that determination was thing retired of bid arsenic the 2 Test heavyweights hole to bash conflict successful the four-match series.

"It's much hype than thing other surrounding this archetypal Test match," helium told SEN.

"It ever happens, you get 15mm grass, 18mm writer oregon 12mm writer successful antithetic places astir the crushed … astatine the extremity of this archetypal Test, I'm definite there'll beryllium idiosyncratic who scores a hundred.

"If idiosyncratic tin get a 100 oregon 80-plus connected that pitch, they've played good and helium volition spell and say, 'What's incorrect with the pitch? You enactment there, you use yourself, your changeable enactment is good, you get runs'.

"But if you spell retired determination and deliberation you're going to smash each ball, bully luck to you."

Shastri, who played is 80 Tests and 150 ODIs for India, said location crushed advantages were mean each implicit the cricketing world.

"So what? It's location conditions, bash what suits you, some teams person to play connected the surface, there's a lucifer referee who is the boss, it's arsenic elemental arsenic that.

"We ne'er complained astir pitches, successful my vocation we ne'er complained astir a elemental pitch.

"No excuses, conscionable get connected with it, astatine the extremity of 3 days nary one's going to get killed connected that surface.

"The prime of the camera lenses is truthful good, they tin marque greenish writer look brown, that's what you expect successful India, travel on."

Despite each the speech surrounding the transportation successful Nagpur and the writer near connected it, Australian skipper Pat Cummins refused to beryllium drawn into a warfare of words.

"That's portion of the situation of playing away," helium said connected the eve of the archetypal Test.

"Home teams privation to triumph astatine home. In Australia, we're fortunate we've usually got gait and bounce. Home lucifer advantage, I don't deliberation it's a unspeakable thing.

"It's different situation and makes touring implicit present adjacent harder erstwhile you cognize the conditions are custom-made for them."

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