Former India head coach Ravi Shastri hit back at critics on Monday over the pitches prepared by the BCCI curators in the recently-concluded Border Gavaskar series.
The first three Tests finished inside three days with the pitches in Nagpur, Delhi and Indore assisting mainly the spinners.
The ball turned a lot right from Day 1 on all three pitches but the Ahmedabad Test saw a different script as the match went the full distance.
Batters were glad to see a slow and low pitch which hardly turned but the match itself turned out to be yet another high-scoring thriller, unlike the first three Tests which produced a result.
Weighing in on the pitch debate, Shastri asked if fans and cricket pundits preferred a pitch which produces a result in three days or a wicket like the one we saw at the Narendra Modi stadium on which India scored 571 runs while Australia managed 480 and 175/2 declared.
Shastri hits back at pitch critics
"We need to talk about these numbers - 91 wickets over seven days and 15 wickets over four days. So what do you want, this kind of a pitch or the other pitches?" Shastri asked his fellow commentators during their discussion on the BGT 2023 wickets on Day 5 of the fourth Test.
"You don't want to finish in three days yes, totally agree, but that could also be because of incompetent batting. I hope all those whiners about Indian pitches are happy now," the former India all-rounder added.
India and Australia will face off once again in the ICC World Test Championship Final at The Oval in London on June 7.
India qualified for their second successive WTC final after New Zealand beat Sri Lanka in the Christchurch Test and the Ahmedabad game produced a draw.
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