NEW DELHI: Former Indian captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar wants to see if the pitch at Wanderers for the third Test will be reported by the match referee. In his column for TOI, Gavaskar wrote that any pitch which is totally one-sided is not a good pitch and the one at the Wanderers is so much in favour of the bowlers that some of the best batsmen in the world have looked all at sea.
Gavaskar added that fortunately, the pitch was not a risk to life and limb as some lively bouncy pitches can be, but still the batsmen had to take few blows with the awkward bounce from the pitch. “That is something that is inevitable on a playing surface like this one and the good batsmen are prepared to do that for the boys.”
“Cheteshwar Pujara was right that the score India got was as good as 300 on a normal pitch and as the match goes on it’s not going to get easier. The cracks are opening up and making the ball zoom upwards and at right angles. Like Pujara for India, Hashim Amla batted with calm and took a few blows but he hung in there,” Gavaskar wrote.
“Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed with both bat and ball why it was a mistake to leave him out of the second Test. A swing and seam bowler does not need a helpful surface, for the deception is in the movement of the ball in the air as much as off the pitch,” the batting great opined.
“He keeps asking awkward questions of the batsmen and once again made the South African batsmen uncomfortable with his line and length. Unfortunately for India, Mohammed Shami wasn’t at his best and that meant Kohli had to overbowl the other three seamers. With a small total on board, Kohli couldn’t risk Hardik Pandya too much either,” Gavaskar signed off.
