India vs England: Virat Kohli and Ravi Ashwin criticize the SG ball quality during the first test against England.
India vs England: Indian players after the defeat in the first test game at Chennai against England, criticised the hand-stitched Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) ball which is used in Test cricket in India.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli during the post-match presentation seemed unpleased by the quality of the ball for the test cricket. “The wicket here in Chennai was slow and flat and the quality of the ball was also not something to praise. Especially when playing test cricket, the ball gets completely destroyed in just 60 overs is not something you experience as a test side,” Virat Kohli said.
Ravichandran Ashwin who picked nine wickets in the game was also not happy with the ball quality.
“In my years-long cricket career, I haven’t seen SG ball getting destroyed after 56-60 overs. So it could well be a combination of how hard the pitch was on the first two days, even in the second innings after the 35th-40th over, the seam was getting sort of peeled off,” Ashwin said. “It was bizarre, I mean, I haven’t seen an SG ball like that in the last so many years, but yeah, maybe it could be due to the pitch and the hardness of it through the centre which is making the ball get scuffed up.”
A similar incident during 2018:
This is not the first time when Indian players were unhappy with the quality of the SG ball. During the 2018 two games test series against West Indies, Indian skipper Virat Kohli complaint of the ball getting scruffed in mere five over and he demanded to introduce the Duke balls in India.
“I have never seen SG ball getting scruffed in 5 overs. Earlier, the quality of the ball used to be quite high and I don’t know why it has come done over the years. I think Duke balls are the most suitable for the test cricket across the globe.”
“Back then, Ashwin has said that SG ball is the best and when I started playing first-class cricket, the quality was top-notch. You can even use it for 70 or probably more overs and the seam used to be standing strong. But the case right now is totally different here,” Ashwin said.
The SG manufacturers who are supplying SG balls to Indian Cricket since 1993 have their say on the criticism faced by them recently. SG’s marketing director Paras Anand has assured the Indian players that they will surely listen to the players. The reason for the early tear of the seam could be the hard Chennai Surface.
We had your own pitch here, and that is quite hard. The ball is first tested here for over 50,60 and 70 overs and then goes for the lab testing. We ensure that there is no compromise in the quality of the balls we are providing to the Indian cricket.
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