'I Don’t Like These Kinds Of Surfaces': Matthew Hayden's Blunt Take On Indore Pitch

Australian skipper called his spinners to bowl in the sixth over of the innings and soon Kangaroos’ spinners put Indian batters on the backfoot.

The Indian team are locking horns against the Australians in the third Test at Indore. After winning the toss, India decided to bat first. It looks like they made a blunder as they have lost seven wickets for just 84 runs at Lunch.

Australian skipper called his spinners to bowl in the sixth over of the innings and soon Kangaroos’ spinners put Indian batters on the backfoot. Former Australian batter Matthew Hayden spoke about the pitch and said, “No way spinners should come to bowl in the sixth over. This is the reason I don’t like these kinds of surfaces. It shouldn’t be keeping this low and turning so much on Day 1. It doesn’t matter whether Australia wins this Test or India. These kinds of surfaces are not good for Test cricket.”

“You are allowed to have a four-five days Test match. At this pace I feel sorry for the fans, I don’t think this Test will go for Day 4,” he stated while commentating for Star Sports on Wednesday.

Shubman Gill, who replaced Rahul in India XI for Indore Test scored only 21 runs. He was looking good initially but failed to convert it into the big total. Rohit, Cheteshwar Pujara, Jadeja, and Iyer too departed early. 

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.

Australia (Playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), S Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), R Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, W Sundar, Y Chahal, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkat.

Australia: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green (injured), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc (injured), Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.