Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara, who retired from all formats of the game on Sunday, August 24, admitted that preparing rank turners didn’t help anyone, especially the art of Test batting as the matches used to get done in 2-3 days.
Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara, who retired from all formats of the game, conceded that preparing rank turners during home seasons didn’t help Indian batting and Test cricket in general. Pujara mentioned that those tracks forced the batters’ skill out of the window as they needed a lot of luck to go their way, along with their skill and technique, to be able to bat themselves in and score runs. Pujara, who scored 7,195 runs in 103 Test matches for India, hoped that the management would realise that it wasn’t the greatest move.
“I thought it had a big impact on Indian batting and Test cricket as a whole. The reason those kinds of tracks were prepared was because of the World Test Championship, where teams wanted results from every game. But I don’t think that was ideal for Test cricket,” Pujara told India Today days after announcing his retirement at the age of 37.
“Going forward, I’m sure the management and everyone involved hasย realised that when you prepare such surfaces, a batter needs a lot of luck to score runs. Your skills often get taken out of the game, and you’re forced to play bravely, looking to score quick 40s, 50s, or 60s-whatever you can manage,” the senior India batter to have played more than 16,000 balls in Test cricket said. Pujara further mentioned that he wasn’t suggesting that the ball shouldn’t turn but called for a better battle between ball and bat.
“I think things are changing now. Most teams are playing on better pitches, and I hope India also continues to do so. I’m not saying the ball shouldn’t turn-it should-but matches shouldn’t finish in three or three-and-a-half days. Ideally, we should be playing on good pitches where games last into the fourth or fifth day,” Pujara added.
Whether it was the two Ahmedabad Tests against England in 2021, or the Indore Test in 2023 against Australia or the Mumbai Test match against New Zealand last year, despite not learning their lessons, India prepared dust bowls in the hope of getting results in their favour, but that didn’t happen many times. India lost the Indore Test during the home Border-Gavaskar Trophy and a red-soil rank turner at the Wankhede Stadium was just an attempt for India to potentially avoid a whitewash against the Kiwis, having lost the first two Tests but that didn’t happen either.
With the new home Test season set to commence in October, hopefully, the tracks will be closer to the ones which were dished out against England last year, compared to the ones prepared in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 home seasons.
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