India vs England 2nd Test match is underway and on Day 3 and India look solid after gaining a solid lead of 195 runs in the second innings. It was difficult to score on a pitch that started turning and bouncing right from the word go. England lost wickets in a hurry and got all-out for a merge 134 runs in their first innings. Ravi Ashwin spun a web around the English batsmen along with Axar Patel. A few ex-cricketers believed that the pitch was unfairly favoring the spinners and the home team took advantage of it. But Gavaskar came in India’s defense citing the innings played by Rohit Sharma on the same surface.
Earlier, England’s Michael Vaughan had commented about the issue and wrote on Twitter: “…Not making any excuses as India have been better but this isn’t a Test Match 5 day prepared Pitch." Australia’s Shane Warne jumped in the debate and replied to Vaughan. He wrote: “India have batted & bowled better than Eng in this match - simple. Conditions have been the same for both sides from ball one. But this is excessive & in favour of the ball.” Take a look at this little banter on Twitter.
Then, Mark Waugh also had his say on the matter. He wrote: “I’m all for a good contest between bat and ball in test match cricket but this pitch in Chennai is unacceptable at test match level. You can’t have the ball going through the top of the surface on day 1 from the main part of the pitch. Ie not from the footmarks.”
With these cricketers blaming the pitch for England’s poor performance, Gavaskar replied saying that the pitches in England or Australia are never criticized even though they start seeming and swinging on Day 1 itself. "Some of them are saying that - but you have a seeming pitch in England. Australia get dismissed for 46 - the ball keeps seeming all throughout. No one talks about that. It's always about Indian pitches, and when the ball starts to turn, people pose a problem," he said. He was talking on a pre-match show on Star Sports.
He also hailed the batting of Rohit Sharma to intensify his argument. He reiterated that if a batsman has good skills, he can even bat it out on this wicket. Taking a dig at Waugh and others, he said: "Yes. One or two who we know who don't like India, who don't like England, so they always be having a go at India and England, so that's fine. We ignore them because we know the double standards. But basically, we saw with Rohit Sharma's innings, if pitch was impossible, nobody would have scored 330."
Finally he said that the pitch is ‘challenging’ and not ‘unplayable’.