Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Ravi Shastri lashed out at criticism surrounding the Nagpur pitch for the first Test between India and Australia. The former India coach said it was more hype than anything else.
Ravi Shastri lashed out at criticism surrounding the Nagpur pitch for the first Test between India and Australia (Courtesy: AFP)
By India Today Web Desk: Former India coach Ravi Shastri does not mince words and he was brutal in his takedown of the Australian criticism of the pitch being readied for the first Test in Nagpur against India starting on February 9.
One Australian journalist called the Nagpur pitch dodgy, while another report speculated on what India’s tactics with the Nagpur surface were after only certain areas on the pitch was watered and others were left “bone dry”.
A host on SEN’s Sportsday reckoned the dry pitch amounted to cheating and Ravi Shastri, who had coached India to historic Test series wins in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21, shut him down in his inimitable style.
“That is bulls**t! It’s more hype than anything else surrounding this first Test match.,” Ravi Shastri said. “It always happens, you get 15mm grass, 18mm grass or 12mm grass in different places around the ground … at the end of this first Test, I’m sure there’ll be someone who scores a hundred.
“If someone can get a hundred or 80-plus on that pitch, they’ve played well and he will go and say, ‘What’s wrong with the pitch? You stay there, you apply yourself, your shot selection is good, you get runs’.
But if you go out there and think you’re going to smash every ball, good luck to you,” Shastri said.
Ravi Shasti said India has never complained about pitches and added that nobody should be allowed to make any excuces.
“If the ball is going to turn from there, so be it,” Shastri said. “So what? It’s home conditions, do what suits you, both teams have to play on the surface, there’s a match referee who is the boss, it’s as simple as that.
“We never complained about pitches, in my career we never complained about a simple pitch. No excuses, just get on with it, at the end of three days no one’s going to get killed on that surface. The quality of the camera lenses is so good, they can make green grass look brown, that’s what you expect in India, come on,” he said.
The pitch debate around the India-Australia started raging when Ian Healy, the former Australian wicketkeeper, said the tourists will win only if they get fair pitches. His remarks were met with immediate retorts. John Wright, who coached India during the days of Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy, said every host nation is entitled to produce pitches that suit their strengths.
R Ashwin, India’s most potent spinner, said Healy’s comments before the first Test had given the series the spark it needed.
“Anyway, an Australian broadcaster and former player Ian Healy has given a few gems before the BGT.” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. “He has given a few statements that say ‘India will make sure the Australians feel uncomfortable in India. I don’t believe that they will give us wickets that will look even slightly closer to what we will actually get during a game’. So he has said that Australia’s approach is only correct. The support staff might have given their opinion, but Ian Healy’s quote has set a spark with this take. It’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy guys. So we need this spark, right?”
Ravi Shastri, as India coach, had never allowed talk of pitches and conditions. In fact, after India whitewashed South Africa at home in 2019, Shastri had exclaimed: Bhaad mein gaya pitch (To hell with pitches).
In his tenure as India coach, Ravi Shastri oversaw Test victories in England and South Africa before twin series wins down under in Australia. On the 2020-21 tour, India had lost all of their frontline bowlers by the time the teams travelled to Brisbane for the series-decider but a young team rallied to hand a full-strength Australia a shock defeat at their fortress.
