India captain Rohit Sharma said that he is happy playing on pitches like the one in Cape Town which seamed and bounced from day one until the ICC and match referees keep mum on spin-friendly tracks in India.
He said that surfaces in India are unfairly judged by the ICC, referencing the ICC World Cup final pitch. This came India won the 2nd Test against South Africa in one and a half days.
Leading the two-Test series 1-0, South Africa had batted first in Cape Town after winning the toss but were bowled out for 55 runs. Then India was shot out for 153 after losing the last six wickets for 0 runs.
South Africa, in the second innings, could only make 176 runs despite a century by Aiden Markram and India chased down the 79-run target with ease, winning the match by 7 wickets in the end and leveling the series 1-1.
For India, Mohammed Siraj picked 6/15 and one wicket in the second innings, while Jasprit Bumrah picked 8 wickets, including 6/61 in the second innings.
Amid seaming conditions and variable bounce on offer at Newlands, the match lasted just 642 balls (107 overs) -- becoming the shortest-ever Test in the history of cricket.
With the match getting done and dusted inside five sessions, Rohit described the pitch as 'dangerous' but said he did have no problem as long as turning Indian tracks were accepted.
"I don’t mind being on pitches like this as long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and no one is talking about the pitches there. Yes, it is dangerous, but you come here (South Africa) to challenge yourself and you must face up to it.
"In India, when it turns on day one, people say ‘Oh, there is a puff of dust’. We need to stay neutral, especially match referees. I would love to see how the pitches are rated. I still can’t believe the (Cricket) World Cup final pitch (in Ahmedabad) was rated below standard. A player (Australia’s Travis Head) got a hundred there. So these are the things the ICC, the match referees, they need to look into and start rating pitches based on what they see, not based on the countries,” Rohit Sharma told reporters in a post-match conference.
"So I hope they keep their ears open, they keep their eyes open and look into those aspects of the game. Honestly, I'm all for pitches like this. We want to challenge playing on pitches like this. We pride ourselves on playing on pitches like this. Uh, but all I want to say is be neutral," he added.
Rohit added that ICC should not show double standards in rating a pitch based on spin or seam on day one. He believes the nature of the wicket made their Cape Town win even more special.
"And in India as well, we know that the conditions in India will spin without a doubt, but obviously people don't like it because it spins from day one. But that's not the point. If the ball seams from ball one, that's okay, right, for everyone? That's not fair. The ball starts spinning from ball one, it should be okay, in my opinion.
Otherwise, you stay neutral, and you start rating these kinds of pitches also bad, because if you want the ball only to seam and not turn, in my opinion, that is absolutely wrong. So that's my judgment, that's my opinion on it. I'll stick by it because I've seen enough of cricket now and I've seen enough of how these match referees and the ICC looks into these ratings. I have no issues in how they want to rate, but stay neutral to everything that you do,” Rohit added.
This was the first time India drew a Test series in South Africa since 2011.
(Reuters/ ESPNCricinfo inputs)
