Former India opener Aakash Chopra agreed with Rohit Sharma’s call for consistency from the International Cricket Council (ICC) in rating pitches, but stressed that a bad pitch should be called out, regardless of whether it’s in the sub-continent or overseas. Chopra’s comments came after Rohit Sharma lashed out at the ICC officials for inconsistent ratings to pitch following the end of the Cape Town Test in 1-and-a-half days.
Questions were asked about the nature of the pitch at Newlands as 23 wickets fell on the opening day, eventually resulting in the shortest completed Test match in the history of the sport. Only 107 overs were bowled as India rattled South Africa in the first innings, bowling them out for just 55. India managed 153 despite losing their last 6 wickets without scoring a run. South Africa’s Aiden Markram hit a sensational hundred in the second innings but it was not enough as India chased down 79 runs with 7 wickets to spare.
“The big question is what is right and what is wrong. Rohit said no one should talk about the pitch and that the match referees should watch properly because if you felt the World Cup final pitch was bad, what sort of pitch was this? He is right,” Aakash Chopra said in his YouTube show.
“My thinking is – Is this pitch right? Are the one-and-a-half to two-day-match turners prepared in India right? We are trying to justify one extreme with another. The truth is neither this nor that is right. A bad pitch should be called bad, whether it is ours or someone else’s,” he added.
