India vs England: Joe Root blames the pitch at Modi Stadium, Rohit Sharma defends.
India vs England: England skipper Joe Root blames the pitch and surface used at revamped Narendra Modi Stadium. According to him, ‘wicket was the real shame’ while Rohit Sharma counters and said ‘wickets had no demons’. The Pink ball test ended within two days as England were rattled by spin duo Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin.
The rank turner aided tweakers as they picked 27 wickets out of 30 on the surface in a little over five sessions. Indian Axar Patel picked 11 wicket haul, Ashwin got 7 scalps while Joe Root picked his five-for and Jack Leach got 4 wickets.
With the result of the loss to England, they are out of the contention of ICC World Test Championship berth of the second finalist. While India and Australia are still in the race.
Root said, ‘it’s a real shame’
‘It’s a real shame because it’s a fantastic stadium, 40,000 people have come to watch a brilliant, iconic Test match and I feel for them,’ he said. The fans have come here to watch the battle of Jimmy Anderson and Virat Kohli, Ravi Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah troubling the batsmen.
“Ishant Sharma who played his 100th test got just a few over to the bowl, Jasprit Bumrah and our pacers have the same story. The crowd came to watch the battle of the best to the best and they got to see me getting a five-for. I feel like the crowd has been robbed.”
Rohit Sharma countered Root
Rohit Sharma who scored a brilliant and confident fifty in the second innings and 25 runs in the fourth innings, countered Root’s statement and said, “the pitch had no real demons”.
It was pretty good to bat on once the batsmen get settled. Players from both sides made mistakes, most of the wickets fell in straight deliveries which is bizarre. The batsmen have to trust his defence and back himself. You need good concentration to defend the good deliveries and punish any loose.
“To be honest, on a pitch like that.. the pitch didn’t do anything. If I can recollect, most of the batsmen got out to straighter deliveries. Not just them, we, as a batting unit, made a lot of mistakes. We didn’t bat well in the first innings. The pitch had nothing as such, no such demons as we call. It was a nice pitch to bat on, once you’re in, you can score runs as well,” Rohit said during a virtual press conference.
“But again, you just need to apply and keep concentrating on a pitch like that. To score runs, you need more concentration on a pitch like that,” he added.
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