India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane on Tuesday said that the criticism of the Ahmedabad pitch does not need to be taken seriously and said that Team India has never complained about surfaces when they were on tours.
There has been a lot of talk about the ‘spin-friendly’ pitch for the Pink-ball Test that ended within two days and several former England players including Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss slamming India for manufacturing such pitches.
“See, let people speak what they want to. The wickets, when we tour abroad, no one speaks about how seaming they are. They always speak about the technique of the Indian batsmen, I don’t feel we need to take seriously what people say.
“…You see, when we tour abroad, the first day wicket is damp. When wicket becomes grassy and behaves up and down, then the pitch becomes dangerous but we haven’t complained about it or we have never spoken about it,” Rahane said during a virtual media conference on Tuesday.
When asked about the pitch for the fourth Test, he said that it looks similar to the ones for the last two Tests in the series.
“I think the wicket will be similar to the second Test match in Chennai, spinning track. Yes, pink ball made the difference and it came much quicker off the wicket compared to red ball and we had to make adjustments. Wicket will be a lot similar to last two Test matches,” he added.
Despite beating England within two days in the last Test match, Rahane added that Team India was not taking the opposition lightly.
“We are not taking them lightly, and both teams will go out there and look to give their best to win the Test match,” he said.
