Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on Saturday (February 27) shared his two cents on the raging debate over the Ahmedabad pitch for the third Test between India and England.
According to Ashwin, talk regarding the pitch is getting out of hand and one should be discussing quality of play rather than the 22 yards.
Ashwin’s comments came after India’s 10-wicket victory over England in the Day-Night Test, which finished inside two days, dividing opinion among experts and fans over the quality of the surface.
"I think I have said that in the past as well, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I am not here to say that your opinion is right and it is wrong. The fact remains that the talk about the surface is getting out of hand. Why would you talk about the surface and sell that to us time and time again? Is there any instance where the pitch has been talked about this much when we have played games in other countries," Ashwin said during a virtual press conference.
"I somehow find it funny that when they speak about the surface, it immediately gets quoted all over in our press and this is the issue here. There have been instances, we have been to New Zealand, where both the Tests got over in a total of five days. There is a video doing the rounds where Virat Kohli is talking in South Africa and he says I am not here to talk about the pitch. That is how we have been taught to play cricket, that's why I say let them sell thoughts, buying is our choice," he added.
During the pink-ball Test, England were bowled out for 112 and 81 while India scored 145 in the first innings before chasing a 49-run target without any hiccup.
Former English cricketers such as Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss and Sir Alastair Cook have criticised the nature of the pitch. On the other hand, the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have defended it, saying that the batting performance from both teams was below-par.
Further sharing his views on the pitch debate, Ashwin said: "The bowler wins the game, the batsmen need to bat well to score runs. Who defines what a good surface is? Seam on the first day, then bat well in the next couple of days and spin on the last two days, come on, who makes these rules? We need to get over it and if you are asking whether the pitch in the third Test was a good surface, I do not see any players of England coming out and complaining. You should be hoping for a good cricket match, not the surface."
The seasoned off-spinner had made cryptic tweets on Friday (February 26) and explaining his posts, the cricketer said: "I went through my timeline, I saw many retweets and quote tweets, I don't understand if they didn't get it what they were retweeting it about. It is very simple, I have always wanted to talk about it at one stage. With respect to thoughts being put across and planted, I find it extremely hilarious. You have a thought process and you want everybody to follow, with thoughts, what happens is you condition people to believe in a certain manner.
"You watch a match, India wins the game, at most everyone is saying I am happy India won the game. You don't want people going back home and saying India is not winning the game, the pitch is winning the game. I do not want people to do that. I think it's important that people sell things, but we must know what we should buy," he added.
(With ANI inputs)
