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If the pitch in Indore for the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy received a ‘poor’ rating from the ICC for its excessive turn and inhospitable batting conditions, then so too should be the lifeless surface dished up for the series finale in Ahmedabad.
Just 15 wickets fell across the first 11 sessions of the match, with both Australia and India reduced to merely keeping the run rate down with the ball.
The ICC have historically been reluctant to award a low score to an overly batting-friendly pitch, though they did slap the MCG with a ‘poor’ rating after the disastrously dull 2017 Boxing Day Ashes Test.
Even that wicket, though, saw 24 wickets fall across the five days – Ahmedabad still needs nine further wickets in the final four sessions of the match to simply break even.
Pitches such as these are becoming more commonplace in Test cricket, with the return to cricket in Pakistan for the first time in nearly two decades particularly hampered in recent years by a series of lifeless surfaces, including on recent tours by Australia, England and Pakistan.
It is time for the ICC to make it clear that batting paradises are just as bad for the game as any minefield – and given the suffocating heat in Ahmedabad this week, arguably just as dangerous for all involved.
Former great Mark Waugh summed it up best at lunch on Day 4 when he described the wicket as a ’22-day pitch’, while former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin admitted the Test has been ‘hard to watch’.
“It’s not going to do much, I don’t think,” Waugh said on Fox Cricket.
“The pitches in the first three Test matches have been two-day pitches, and this one’s a 22-day pitch.
“It’s done nothing. There’s not much rough there, there’s not much reverse swing, the odd ball has spun. It looks pretty solid, this pitch.”
Just before tea on Day 4, Virat Kohli became the fourth batter to bring up triple figures for the Test, in the process breaking a 1205-day streak without a Test ton, dating all the way back to November 2019.
Brought up with a trademark flick through forward square leg off Nathan Lyon, Kohli was a relieved man as he celebrated the milestone, reached off 241 balls, in more subdued fashion than usual.
As batter-friendly as the wicket is, the 34-year old’s achievement shouldn’t be understated. Having held the burden of the heaviest monkey on the back in world cricket ever since his century drought passed the 12-month mark, after a series in which he has constantly proved a thorn in Australia’s side with the bat, his 75th international century, and 28th in Tests, should be the beginning of a fruitful conclusion to his glittering career over the next few years.
Kohli and wicketkeeper KS Bharat had already made cricket history with their 84-run partnership on Day 4: it marked the first time in Test history a team has started their innings with five 50-plus partnerships.
That became six as Kohli and Axar Patel’s partnership also reached 50; Bharat, despite clubbing Cameron Green for consecutive sixes in a whirlwind finish to his innings, would fall short of a maiden Test half-century when he edged Lyon to Peter Handscomb at short leg.
Virat Kohli bats. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Ravindra Jadeja is a world-class all-rounder and has chalked up fantastic numbers with bat and ball in recent years.
But he’s not a No.5 batter at Test level.
His dismissal early on day four proved that. He went on the attack when India were traveling along nicely against Todd Murphy, only to undo 84 balls of good work by recklessly mistiming the Victorian straight to Usman Khawaja at mid-on.
Speaking on ABC Radio, Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar wasn’t impressed.
“He threw it away,” Gavaskar said.
“The partnership was going well, feeding off each other’s confidence.”
Jadeja’s dismissal, to leave India at 4/309, briefly threatened to let Australia back into the match, with regular number six Shreyas Iyer dropping down the order and unlikely to bat after sustaining a back injury.
India’s desire to keep Iyer at number six, and with keeper Bharat still finding his feet, Jadeja has been asked to bat at five for much of this series, averaging just 16.25 in the role after making a brilliant 70 at number seven in the first Test in Nagpur.
Having proved one of the finest number sevens in world cricket in recent years, Jadeja will likely move back down to his preferred spot once Rishabh Pant is ready to make a return from injuries sustained during a horrific car accident in late December last year.
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