Shoaib Akhtar believes that team India doesn’t need to play on rank turners to defeat the England side. The former Pakistan fast bowler rates the India team extremely highly and thinks and they can win the series against England even if they prepare fair pitches.
After the opening Test, the pitches prepared in the second and third Test turned from day 1 which exposed the batting techniques of the England batting line-up. The third Test at Ahmedabad finished in under 2 days as former England cricketers slammed the pitch and called it ‘unplayable’ and not good for Test cricket.
Shoaib Akhtar Shares His Viewpoints On The Ahmedabad Pitch
Shoaib Akhtar has been closely following the Test series between the two sides shared his views on the Ahmedabad pitch. The former cricketer holds that India should play on the fairground and should play on fair surfaces which have an even contest between bat and ball. He added that the second Test pitch wasn’t up to the standards of Test cricket and India took way too much advantage of home conditions.
“Should Test matches be played on such wickets? Not at all. A pitch where there is so much unreasonable turn, that a match gets finished in two days, is not good for Test cricket. I understand the concept of home advantage but this sort of advantage I believe is a little too much. If India had scored 400 runs and England got out for 200, then one could say that England played poorly. But here, even India was shot out for 145”, opined Akhtar on his YouTube channel.
“I thought India is a bigger, better team than this. There should be fair play and fair pitches where I think India can still beat England. They don’t need to be scared. There is no need for India to prepare such wickets. Did we make the wicket in favour of India in Adelaide? Was the wicket in Melbourne made in favour of India? How did they win the series there? You play on fair ground, fair conditions, and say ‘Look, we can play well at home and abroad”, concluded Shoaib Akhtar.
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Meanwhile, the pitch for the 4th Test between the two sides at Ahmedabad is expected to be a better surface to bat on. The spinners might come into to play from day 3 which would mean that the side batting first will have a major advantage. Virat Kohli and his men will be motivated to win the series by 3-1 and qualify for the ICC world Test championship final.
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