India vs England 2021: ‘It was not a pitch where the ball was misbehaving constantly,’ says Sunil Gavaskar

India vs England 2021: ‘It was not a pitch where the ball was misbehaving constantly,’ says Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian player Sunil Gavaskar talked of the Narendra Modi Stadium’s pitch surface of the recent pink-ball day-night Test match between India and England. Defending the pitch conditions, Gavaskar said Rohit Sharma showed how to bat on the pitch where Team India clinched a convincing win by ten wickets to go up the series 2-1.

Though a total of 30 dismissals happened in less than two days, it was Rohit Sharma (India) and Zak Crawley (England) who scored half-centuries each and looked promising on the pitch.

“It was not a pitch where the ball was misbehaving constantly. Nothing was kicking up alarmingly. Neither was there any great invariable bounce that the ball would shoot. Here, the bounce was actually true, almost,” Gavaskar said

‘Rohit Sharma’s batting in both innings showed you could score runs on this pitch,’ reckoned Gavaskar

The former batting great hailed the Indian opener Rohit Sharma who smashed 66 runs in the first innings and played a fiery knock in the second one to get Team India an easy win.

“Yes, there was spin but Test match batsmen should be able to handle the turn or the straighter ones. Challenging, but not treacherously challenging. If you look at the dismissals, the batsmen have contributed to their own downfall.

“More than the pitch, it was about the mindset which did them in. Rohit Sharma’s batting in both innings showed you could score runs on this pitch,” Gavaskar told Indian Express.

With Team India winning the third Test, the Test series stands 2-1 in India’s favor. The fourth and the final Test will be played between the two sides in Ahmedabad from March 4.

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