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Difficult Indore pitch tests Ashwin, Latham
- Updated: October 10, 2016
Even if you don’t go looking for it, you get comments on pitches in India. Before this Test began, in response to a photo of the pitch tweeted by the BCCI, Harbhajan Singh, India’s most successful offspinner, tweeted it looked like a two-day-old pitch already, and predicted a finish in three-and-a-half days. With India batting for almost two days, people on Twitter began to ridicule Harbhajan. His response was to wait and watch for the turn, and that he got such turners only twice – Kanpur 2008 and Mumbai 2004 – in his whole career in India. He reckoned his and Anil Kumble’s wicket tally would have been “something else” if they got the pitches India have been playing on in the last “four” years.
If this was unsolicited, R Ashwin’s first answer at a press conference after completing his 20th five-wicket haul, which bowled New Zealand out for 299, was to mention how difficult a pitch it was. He was asked how important the other bowlers were – Ashwin got six, he ran two batsmen out, and Ravindra Jadeja got two wickets – and he looked bemused. He seemed to stop himself from answering sarcastically lest it be misconstrued, and said, “It was very important. It was a very, very difficult wicket to bowl on. The way Shami and Umesh bowled in the morning, they never let go of the steam. Especially Umesh bowled very quick through the day. Hopefully they can get some good returns in the second innings.”
Tom Latham, the only man …
