Former England skipper Alastair Cook reacted to the Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s comments, where he claimed that the pitch in Ahmedabad was very good to bat, and said that Kohli came out and defended the wicket almost as if it's a BCCI thing.
In the conditions where spinner dominated batsmen, India won the third Test match by 10 wickets on Thursday, which lasted only two days. The spinners picked 28 of the 30 wickets and no team crossed the 150-run mark, which led to many labelling the pitch unsuitable for a five-day game.
However, after the match Indian skipper Virat Kohli said that the pitch in Ahmedabad was very good to bat on, putting the poor batting display down to a lack of application from both teams.
Addressing Virat Kohli’s comment, former England skipper Alastair Cook said that the former came out and defended the wicket almost as if it's a BCCI thing.
"Virat Kohli's come out and defended the wicket almost as if it's a BCCI thing - it cannot possibly be the wicket. Yet it was so hard to bat on that today. So hard,” Alastair Cook told Channel 4.
Cook pointed to Virat Kohli and Joe Root as brilliant players of spin and underlined that the batsmen can't be blamed for the defeat.
"Take the wicket out and blame the batsmen? We've got Virat Kohli, Joe Root, we have some great players of spin. Yes, we've got some people who have got to learn to play spin better, but we have got great players of spin also struggling,” he said.
Cook showed interest in seeing how the red ball performs on these surfaces and added that it was impossible to play with the skidding pink ball.
“To me, It'd be great to have that game with the red ball to see the difference when the ball is skidding on. Today trying to play properly, it was nigh-on impossible," he said.
Alastair Cook, who is England’s highest run-scorer in Test cricket, said the ball turned miles on the Ahmedabad pitch and added that the wickets that fell to straighter balls were due to the build-up of turning balls before them.
“We saw a stat that says this pitch has spun more than any other pitch in India. There's been so many other balls that have gone straight on as well. So that means when it is turning, it is turning miles. When you see the highlights and the ball skidding on you, we don't see the build-up: when the exact same ball is spinning miles," he concluded.
(Channel 4 inputs)
