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India captain Rohit Sharma has called for a more consistent review of pitches in India in the wake of the Newlands Test ending in less than two days, making it the shortest completed Test in the history of the game. Thirty three wickets fell in less than five sessions as batters from both sides struggled to cope with the seam and variable bounce. “I don’t mind being on pitches like this as long as everyone keeps their mouth shut and no one is talking about the pitches in India,” said Sharma at the post-match press conference on Thursday.
“Yes, it is dangerous. It is challenging. Look, when you are here to play Test cricket — we talk about Test cricket, the ultimate prize, Test cricket being the pinnacle and stuff like that. I think it’s important that we also stand by it.
“When you are put up against a challenge like that, you come and face it. That’s what happens in India. But if the pitch starts turning, people start talking about ‘Puff of dust! Puff of dust!’ There are so many cracks here on the pitch. People are not looking at that.”
Sharma brought up the ODI World Cup as well, where he felt some pitches weren’t rated fairly. “I still can’t believe the World Cup final pitch (in Ahmedabad) was rated below average. A batter (Australia’s Travis Head) got a hundred there. How can that be a poor pitch? They must rate pitches based on what they see, not based on countries. I think that’s important.
“So I hope they (ICC) 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 ourselves playing on pitches like this. We pride ourselves on playing on pitches like this. But all I want to say is be neutral.”
Spin rarely plays a part in South Africa and this tour wasn’t different. But Sharma believes the optics always seems to make teams visiting India look at a greater disadvantage than when the situation is reversed. “Honestly, I would like to see how the pitches are rated,” he said. “Because Mumbai, Bangalore, Cape Town, Centurion, are all different venues, overhead conditions are different. Pitches deteriorate quite fast when the sun is beating down that hard on it. And in India as well, we know it will spin without a doubt, but obviously people don’t like it because it spins from Day 1. But if the ball seams from ball one, that’s okay? That’s not fair.”
An inescapable lament in the wake of a drawn two-Test series that ended inside five days is the lack of a third game that could have been a fitting finale to such a fierce rivalry. Sharma would have loved it. Dean Elgar too. “It would have been fantastic,” said Elgar at the post-match presentation, adding an understandable caveat: “Maybe back in Centurion,” before bursting into peels of laughter. Why such a significant tour — India are still to win a series in South Africa — was reduced to a two-match affair is a question BCCI is best placed to answer but Thursday’s win also raises the question if better preparation, and perhaps better shot selection in the first Test, would have yielded a different result.
But Sharma didn’t want to read too much into the returns of the younger batters, adding that this series would be a huge learning curve for them. “It’s important to give them that confidence and allow them to play their game as well. And that is something we discussed before the start of the Test series. And while doing that, it may not come off because they all are naturally quite aggressive in how they want to play. They must have learned a lot from the series, and they can take a fair bit of confidence as well. Although they didn’t get big runs, I think that’s okay.”
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