livid with the criticism that pitches for the ongoing series against South Africa are not sporting enough, Indian Team Director Ravi Shastri said there is nothing wrong with Test matches folding up in three days and the critics should "stop cribbing".
"Nothing wrong with it (pitches produced for the Test series). I would hope the one in Delhi is absolutely the same. I have no qualms about it," Shastri told 'ESPNcricinfo'.
India have taken a 2-0 lead in the four-match series, the second game of which was a washout.
The series has been marred by a controversy on the tracks, dubbed excessively spin-friendly, even though the visiting side has not complained about them. The final match of the rubber is scheduled from December 3 here.
Shastri also rejected concerns about Test matches ending inside three days.
"Nothing wrong with that. It (Nagpur) was a Test match that was moving all the time. You compare this Test to the Test match in Perth, I would pay money for a ticket for this game, yaar. To hell with the five days. You go and sit for the last two days there."
Shastri said those complaining about the pitches should understand that it is the lack of technique which is troubling batsmen, not the tracks. "It just goes to show that with the amount of one-day cricket being played, the tendency to graft, the tendency to spend long hours at the crease is diminishing. It's only when you play on tracks like this that you realise that you got to spend time at the crease.
"And when you saw Hashim (Amla) and Faf (du Plessis) batting yesterday, you thought there was nothing in the pitch. It just goes to show there was an era earlier who would play on these pitches and people would get hundreds. Because they were prepared to go through the grind," he said.
The former Indian captain said batsmen who had the patience to apply themselves could have even scored hundreds on these very tracks.
"I think if someone had applied himself he would have got 80-odd, 90-odd, even a hundred. The way (Murali) Vijay was playing he would have got a hundred," Shastri said.
"(The pitch was) absolutely not (a problem). It's on both sides. Par for the course on this wicket was 275 or 250, which was more than enough. If you get up and reach there (to the pitch of the ball) and there is a surface like that you can play on it. You have to stop cribbing and get on with the job at hand.
"For example, Bangalore was a fantastic track. I'm disappointed we are not 3-0 up. On a good track we bowled out South Africa and we were 80 for no loss. We really had a chance to dominate the next four days. People won't talk about that," he added.
Shastri also rubbished suggestions that there was uneven bounce in the Nagpur pitch.
"Where was inconsistent bounceIJ It was fine. It was only later on by the end of the second or the third day when the ball started keeping low. And you tell me which batsman got out to a ball that kept low barring a tail-ender that Mishra (got) in the second inningsIJ (On du Plessis' dismissal in the second innings) What a shot that was. In those circumstances that shot you avoid," he said.
He reiterated that Indians never complain about the pitches when they travel abroad.
"When we go overseas we don't have any choices. Why would you complainIJ I don't see anyone complaining, it's only some of them who have never played the game who are complaining. let them (former Australian cricketers) sit in Australia and talk about their pitches. Tell them not to waste their time about Indian tracks. Come and play here," he asserted.
‘Indian pitches most difficult I’ve faced’
Terming the Indian pitches in the ongoing Test series as the toughest he has faced in his career, South Africa batsman Faf du Plessis has said that the senior players in the visiting side need to support their younger team-mates and keep them motivated.
"I'm a senior player and I'm finding it tough because the conditions dictate the way you play and your performances. It's important for us to try and keep the younger players positive, and we've done that," du Plessis said.
like his captain Hashim Amla, du Plessis called the Indian surfaces the most difficult he has faced and cautioned against using them as a benchmark to assess their performances.
"These have been the toughest conditions that I have played under, it's also been a challenge for the young guys coming in," he said.
"It's a hard task for them because they get judged by playing Test cricket in these conditions where you have found that even our experienced players have found it tough. We have to keep motivating them and to keep the spirits high," du Plessis was quoted as saying in 'Cricinfo'.