Ian Chappell was very criticizing of Pat Cummins and Co after a bad defeat against India in the first test in Nagpur on Saturday while Chappell expressed that Australia needed to stop focusing on all the debate surrounding the pitch in Nagpur and focus erring on their strategy.
Former Australian captain Ian Chappell was very criticizing of Pat Cummins and Co after a bad defeat against India in the opening game of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur on Saturday.
Chappell expressed that Australia needed to stop focusing on all the debate surrounding the pitch in Nagpur and focus erring on their strategy.
There were many reports asserting “pitch doctoring’ by the Indian cricket team and some ex-Australia players also lent help to the allegations. However, the visitors were outplayed and they slumped to a gigantic misfortune within just three days.
“The media making allegations about pitch-doctoring is nothing new. Players need to ignore this little game or else it has a debilitating effect on the visiting team. Far too much emphasis is put on how pitches are going to play and on doctoring. It’s worth remembering that both teams have to play on the same pitch,”
Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNcricinfo after the encounter.
“The first Test has exposed Australia’s weakness against good spin bowling on turning pitches. If they can ensure this setback doesn’t mean their mental capacity to cope in India is not dented, it will keep them in the series. If they waver, they are in big trouble,”
he added.
Rohit Sharma was the pick of the batsmen as he scored an outstanding century and Chappell referred to his example to say that the pitch did not irritate batsmen who had confidence in their defense.
“The state of the pitch was put into perspective by the Indian captain Rohit Sharma. He played a masterful inning that displayed confidence in his defense, his wide stroke range on a turning – but not impossible pitch – and his ironclad discipline,”
“Rohit’s confidence in his defense was crucial. If a player doesn’t trust his defense on Indian pitches he can easily be panicked into trying to do something that he’s not capable of, and this ends up in an embarrassing dismissal,”
he wrote in the column.
