Cricket News: India won the home Test series against West Indies 2–0. The second and final match of the series was played at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, where Team India made a clean sweep by winning by 7 wickets. However, despite this victory, Indian team head coach Gautam Gambhir appeared unhappy with the quality of the pitch. He believes that to keep Test cricket alive, it is very important to make better pitches in the country.
There should be something in the pitch for fast bowlers also
After a crushing 3–0 defeat at home to New Zealand, India had prepared flat pitches in both Ahmedabad and Delhi that primarily suited the batsmen and spinners. Gambhir objected to this and said, “I felt that here (Delhi) we could have got a better wicket. There should be something for the fast bowlers in the pitch as well.” He acknowledged that spinners play an important role, but stressed that when the team has two good fast bowlers, they should also get a chance to remain in the match.
The need of the hour is to play on good pitches
Gambhir expressed concern that the trend of flat pitches is not good for the future of Test cricket. He said, “I think that going forward we should get better wickets in Test cricket, because it is the responsibility of all of us to keep Test cricket alive. The most important thing to keep Test cricket alive is to play on good pitches.”
In the Delhi Test, the West Indies team was forced to play follow-on after being bowled out for 248 runs in the first innings. In the second innings, West Indies performed better on a flat pitch and scored 390 runs and gave India a target of 121 runs to win, which was easily achieved by Team India. Now all eyes are on the pitch of the next home Test match to be held against South Africa in Kolkata on 14th November, where it is expected that the impact of Gambhir’s statement can be seen.
