Ahmedabad: The arguments and counter-arguments about the sustainability of turning pitches in Test cricket have reached new heights after Virat Kohli-led Team India dismantle the much-fancied England team on rank turners to take an unbeaten lead of 2-1 in the ongoing four-match Test series between the nation.
Many past and present cricketers have expressed their opinion on the Motera deck, saying that such pitches are not good for the future of the longest format of the game. However, there are many, who have applauded India's strategy to produce rank turner to outsmart a pace friendly England unit.
And these debates have left cricket fans wondering if the pitch for the fourth Test is going to be spin-friendly or is it going to be a flat deck like the first Chennai Test.
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And even India's limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma is not untouched by this growing excitement among cricket fans.
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"Wondering what the pitch would be like for 4th test," Rohit Sharma's latest Instagram post reads.
After getting humiliated in the tournament opener by 227 runs, Team India made a remarkable comeback to win the next two match comprehensively and took an unbeaten lead of 2-1.
India's latest victory came in day-night, that India wrapped in just two days. The match saw both India and England batsmen failing to shine and getting out to balls that did not turn and skidded through from the spinners.
But critics have looked to blame the pitch for the failure of the batsmen. After the match, Rohit had clarified that he did not think the pitch had any demons. Even skipper Virat Kohli was vocal about the dreadful batting display from the two teams.
"It was a nice pitch to bat on, once you are in, you can score runs as you saw. You just need to apply yourself and keep concentrating in order to score runs. If you look at the Chennai Test match, the second Test, it was turning hell of a lot more than it did here. A lot of the batters got runs there in the second Test, in this Test, we need to be honest to ourselves and accept that we did not bat well," Rohit had said during a virtual press conference after the third Test came to an end.
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"In Chennai, it had a lot more to offer than this, we batted well on that wicket. We learn from our mistakes, guys applied themselves, Ashwin got 100 in the second innings of the second Test, Ajinkya got 50, Virat got 60-odd. If you apply yourselves, you can score runs. We accept as a batting unit that we did not bat as well as we would have liked to in this Test. We just need to take it to ourselves and we need to get back to the drawing board," he added.
