New Delhi: Veteran Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar slammed Australian media and ex-Aussie cricketers for their untasteful comments on Indian pitches. Australian media has been critical of Indian pitches and have also called the Nagpur pitch ‘dodgy’. Indian curators also faced a backlash for the turf in Indore, which was a rank turner and even Indian batters could not score runs on it.
#EXCLUSIVE | Former Australia captain Allan Border & former India captain Sunil Gavaskar discuss the #INDvsAUS cricket climax. #BorderGavaskarTrophy @NikhilNaz
Full video of the show – https://t.co/HFqLGlUn0Z pic.twitter.com/5WG9jRGIdR— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) March 9, 2023
Talking to India Today, Gavaskar said that Steve Smith has said that he likes to play and captain in India as it is challenging. He added that Australia’s current squad is not blaming the pitches while what ex-players are saying is ‘disturbing’. Gavaskar said that India and Australia are completing their 75 years of friendship but former Australian players are using ‘not quite tasteful’ words.
He also talked about the pitch being the same for both sides and said that one has to accept that they are not going to get pitches like at home and called out the use of words like skullduggery and doubting the integrity of the Indians. He said, “No country can have a monopoly on integrity and honesty,” and added that he is a proud Indian and if somebody casts doubt on Indians, he will speak his mind.
India is currently leading the series 2-1 and Australia is set to register a comeback in the series after they won the Indore Test and crossed the 400-run mark in Ahmedabad.
In the last Test in Ahmedabad, Usman Khawaja scored 180* off 421 balls and led his team to 409/7 at Tea on day 2. Cameron Green also scored a century on a pitch that has kept the ball low but looks good to bat on.
