|
In wake of the criticism leveled at India over the absence of spinners in the A-team squad that will play England in a warm-up game, batsman Virat Kohli has said there would be nothing unfair with making England play on spinner-friendly pitches in the Tests. On India's tour to England and Australia
last year, he said, the conditions during the warm-up games and those
in the Test matches were vastly different, which was not 'fair' to
India.
"Why not [turning pitches]? We were given flattest of tracks during
practice matches in England and Australia and then suddenly presented
with a green-top during the Tests," Kohli told PTI. "During
practice matches, we would face those 120kmph bowlers … If they [England
and Australia] wanted to be fair to us, they could have provided us
with same kind of tracks for practice matches, like what were used in
Tests.
"Especially, when they knew that visiting teams get very less time to
practice. Now they would be playing on turning tracks and definitely
would know where they stand."
The tour of India marks the return of Kevin Pietersen
to the England side, after a 10-week stand-off with the team. Kohli
said he will be under a lot of pressure to perform, especially taking
into account England's traditional struggles against spin.
"There will be huge pressure on KP as he has been playing in India for
quite some time and considered to be a good batsman against spin.
"You may say that the senior England cricketers have an understanding of
these conditions but let me tell you, it's not that easy. You might
feel they would like to hit spinners but end up doing exactly opposite."
He pointed to England's tour of the UAE, where they were whitewashed 3-0 by Pakistan
in the Tests, as an example of England's continuing issues with spin.
"That particular series, there wasn't much turn on offer but England
couldn't negotiate one quality spinner [Saeed Ajmal]; they lost the
battle in their heads."
Kohli also defended his team-mates, saying the talk about them being
poor against short-pitched bowling did not make sense. "I have never
really understood this theory. Are people like Tendulkar, Dravid,
Laxman, Sehwag poor players of short-pitched bowling? Show me how many
Indian players were out to short-pitched deliveries in Australia?
"No batsman in world cricket is comfortable against a good bouncer. If
you get a good bouncer, give credit to the bowler rather than finding
chinks in batsman's armoury."
Similarly, he backed MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher,
saying any criticism directed at them for India's recent poor overseas
form was unfounded. "Under him [Dhoni], we have won the World Cup, been
No. 1 in Tests ... He has also encouraged the juniors."
"Duncan is also a thorough professional. He would quietly stand in one
corner and observe. If he needs to say something, he would come up and
give a suggestion. He believes international cricketers know their jobs.
If we have lost eight Test matches, blame us and not the coach."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
No comments:
Post a Comment