File image of Sunil Gavaskar© Twitter
The third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Indore between India and Australia ended in a little over two days on Friday, with the visitors winning by nine wickets. After the match, the International Cricket Council (ICC) deemed the Holkar Stadium pitch used for the third Test, which was played under the ICC World Test Championship umbrella, as “poor” under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.
“Spinners from both teams enjoyed great help from the surface that was conducive to spin right from the start on day one, which saw 14 wickets fall. Out of the 31 wickets that fell during the whole match, 26 were scalped by the spinners while only four wickets went to pacers. One was run-out,” the ICC said in a statement.
“The Holkar Stadium has received three demerit points as a result after ICC Match Referee Chris Broad submitted his report after consultation with both Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith, the captains of both teams in the third Test.”
While admitting that the Indore pitch was tough to bat on, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar questioned the was the demerit points were given.
“It was a tough pitch to bat. You can see from the scores that it was not an easy pitch to bat on. I think three demerit points is little too harsh for the simple reason, if it was such a tough pitch to bat on, you would not have seen a 90-plus stand between Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne. You would not have on Day 3 a 77-run stand if the pitch was such an impossible,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“Tough pitch definitely but that’s what you expect i India. Also, I don’t have exact information but when the Test match was played in November-December at the Gabba between Australia and South Africa, which also finished in two days, and the ball was flying around. The fast bowlers looked very dangerous. They could have caused serious injury. There was a threat to life and limb on that pitch. I don’t know how many demerit points it got and who the match referee was. But I think there needs to some sort of parity on how the demerit points are given.”
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