Pitches for India-Australia series have been poor: Mark Taylor | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Former Australian captain Mark Taylor has come down hard on the pitches used for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Taylor, who played 104 Tests for Australia between 1989 and 1999,, alleged that some amount of “skullduggery” must have been involved in preparation of such tracks.
India are currently leading the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1. The fourth and final Test will be played from March 9 in Ahmedabad. While pitches in Nagpur and New Delhi were rated “average” by the ICC, the pitch for the Indore Test was rated “poor” by match referee Chris Broad.
“I agree with that,” Taylor said of the ICC rating the Indore pitch as poor.

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<p>In the third Test at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore, on a red-turning track, Nathan Lyon bowled venomously against the Indians in the second innings of the match. Lyon’s sharp spin troubled the Indian batters which led to their batting collapse and defeat. Lyon ended his spell at 8/64, the second-best bowling figures of his career. Lyon went past Sri Lanka’s legend Muttiah Murlitharan to 2nd place on the list of most wickets against India and also equalled Richie Benaud’s tally of most 5-wicket hauls vs India in India.</p>

“I definitely think the pitches have been poor for the series, to be totally honest, and obviously the Indore one was the worst of the three. I don’t believe a pitch should be going through the top on day one,” he was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald.

“You might understand that day four or five if the game goes that long, but not day one, that’s just poor preparation. I thought Indore was a very poor pitch and should have been ranked accordingly,” the former opener said.

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar, however, was critical of the “poor” rating of the Indore pitch, citing the example of the Gabba surface which was given “below average” rating by the ICC despite the first Test between Australia and South Africa ended inside two days in last December.

But Taylor begs to differ, stating that the Brisbane pitch was equal for both the sides, unlike the surfaces for the first three Tests of the ongoing India-Australia series which are specifically tailor-made for the spinners.
“I think they’ve got to keep an eye on that sort of stuff because people look at the Gabba this season. The groundsman there just got it wrong,” the former Australian captain said.

“He left too much grass on it but, in a way, it didn’t favour either side. It would have favoured the South African seamers just as much (as Australia) because they’ve got four very good seamers.

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Indore pitch rated ‘poor’ after third Test ended inside three days

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“So I don’t think there was any skulduggery going on at the Gabba. I think with Indore, I hope I can say the same thing there, but what happened there, the pitch was so poorly prepared it actually made the game a bit more of a lottery, which didn’t favour India at all,” Taylor said.
“It probably brought Australia’s spin bowlers into the game a lot more than they (India) thought it was going to.”
(With inputs from PTI)

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