The Nagpur pitch has been the talk of the town ahead of the marquee series against Australia. The former Australian cricketer initially threw the comment that a neutral pitch from the Indian side may provide Australia with a fair chance to win. Despite other Australians passing varied comments on this, several Indians rage back to this. Rohit Sharma, the captain of the Indian Test side gave cryptic answers when asked in the press conference regarding the pitch discussions.
This Tuesday, a few photos of the Nagpur pitch went viral. It is expected that certain parts of the pitch will react in a different way; the curated as said, treated the pitch selectively. Australian cricketers like Jason Gillespie and Simon O’Donnell posed intense criticism and demanded ICC intervention.
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar gave replies too, advising the Aussies not to ‘crib’ over the pitches, even nights before a single ball was bowled.
Rohit Sharma urges to focus on the match
Now, this Wednesday, Rohit Sharma, India captain Rohit Sharma answered the Australian media regarding the “doctored pitches”. The India captain, in the pre-match conference, urged the media and to stay focused on cricket more than the condition of the pitch.
On Wednesday, Rohit said,
“Speaking about doctored pitches, I just feel like, focus on the cricket that is going to be played in the next five days and not worry too much about the pitch. The last series that we played here, a lot was said about the pitches. After all, the 22 guys out there are all quality players. So don’t worry about what the pitches are going to be like, how much will it turn, how much will it seam. Just come out and play good cricket, win the game as simple as that.”
Rohit Sharma however suggested that the Indians too are expecting a spinning pitch. Both Sharma and Pat Cummins can experiment with bowlers in their own way too.
Rohit further said,
“It is important to have a plan and figure out a way. Everyone has a different method. Some like to sweep, some reverse, some hitting over the bowler’s head. You need to rotate the strike and sometimes you need to counterattack. The captains would obviously try different things and change fields and bowlers. So you need to plan and play accordingly.”
Rohit Sharma added,
“But it is a good sign overall that all the guys are performing well and in with a chance for selection. But we will see the conditions and pick teams accordingly. Different pitches would need different skillset. The message is clear, we would take horses for courses and all options are open“.
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