The third Test between India and England was a low-scoring match as both the teams failed to tackle spin. It ended in just 2 days and none of the sides managed to cross 150.
Former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin was disappointed to see batsmen failing on a turning track. He felt the batters should have used shoes with rubber soles instead of spikes. Azharuddin said, to survive on such tracks one should have good shot selection with assured footwork.
India batsmen were expected to take a decent lead in the first innings, considering their reputation of being good players of spin. But they were hunted down by Joe Root as the English captain picked up a five-wicket haul.
"It was disappointing to watch the batsmen come a cropper in the Ahmedabad Test. The key to batting on such dry tracks and rank turners is shot-selection and assured footwork.
"It makes little sense to wear spikes when batting. Rubber soles don't hamper the ability of batsmen. I have seen some amazing Test knocks being played on tough surfaces by batsmen who wore shoes with rubber soles.
"The argument that batsmen can slip when running between wickets is countered by the fact that in Wimbledon, all tennis players wear shoes with rubber soles and the ones that come to mind are not just Indians like Sunil Gavaskar Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar but also many a visiting batsman like Sir Vivian Richards, Mike Gatting Allan Border, Clive Lloyd, and several others", he tweeted.
Only Zak Crawley and Rohit Sharma got half-centuries in the match. Apart from them, no other batsman could cross 30 in the match. India had to chase only 49 runs in the last innings and they won the match by 10 wickets.
