Watch: Rohit Sharma slams experts for criticising Chepauk pitch

India’s opener Rohit Sharm has come down heavily on cricket experts who had criticised the quality of the pitch at Chepauk in the last Test against England. The pitch had started turning from the first day itself and the fact that puff of dust was exploding with some balls caught the attention of many experts, and some of them, especially former overseas cricketers deemed the pitch substandard and some went a step further to rate the pitch a ‘stinker.’

Addressing the press conference on Sunday evening, Rohit said that the pitch will offer turn and bounce has been a fact for ages and that there are no reasons the pitch in the second Test should be criticised so heavily. 

"I've never understood why it's debated so much. People keep talking about it, but the fact is this is how pitches in India have been for a long time. I don't think anything should change. Everyone makes use of the home advantage. When we go outside, no one thinks about us - so why should we think of others?” Rohit asserted in the virtual press conference.

"We need to go with our team's preference. That's the meaning of home advantage. Else, just take it away. The ICC should come up with a uniform rule everywhere for pitches. When we go abroad, people make our life difficult. I don't think pitches should be debated at all. Debates can be held on players, their performances, how they are batting or bowling, but don't debate pitches. Both teams play on the same pitch and whoever plays better wins."




He added that every team has the right to capitalise on the home advantage and that the Indian team too, face it when they tour overseas and the opponent poses challenges on pitches that suit their style of playing cricket. 

He asserted that India too should do it and use the best of the opportunities to drive home the advantage of home conditions and that too without any sense of being apologetic about it.

Rohit was the top scorer on the Chepauk pitch in the second Test and his innings stood apart in the first innings as most of the other batsmen, especially England batsmen were left flummoxed by the turn and bounce on that pitch.

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The stories around the ongoing Test series between India and England have been dominated by the quality and nature of of the pitches used so far in the two Tests, and there is no end to the talks surrounding the 22-yards as the pitch for the third Test at Motera remains under widespread scrutiny. India’s number three, Cheteshwar Pujara who had to come quickly to see what the two surfaces offered to bowlers and batsmen in the first two Tests was presented with the challenge of predicting what the pitch in the third Test would look like. To add to the complexity of the situation, the third Test will be a pink-ball affair and hence groundsmen will have their task cut out in order to balance the assistance between bowlers and batsmen as the piano ball by nature goes soft very quickly compared to the red balls. 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Before that, in their first pink ball game against Bangladesh at home, India steamrolled Bangladesh on the back of a strong pace-attack as spinners did not take even a single wicket at the Eden Gardens. Pujara said that the team will not improve playing with pink-ball by playing one-off Test, but at the same time suggested India will not be compelled to change their tactics going into the third Test against England. On the point of humiliation in Adelaide, Pujara downplayed the collapse as an aftereffect of one terrible session where balls were swinging, otherwise, the team was in commanding position till the end of the first innings fo both sides. "I've played so many Tests but with the pink ball, even I don't have enough experience. I don't think it matters a lot when you play one-off pink-ball Tests, we will get used to it as we keep playing more. We'll have to just play normal cricket, have similar game plans as we had in the previous Test match, depending on the pitch. We'll just stick to that. In Adelaide, the ball was swinging around and we had one bad session of poor batting that led to that disaster, but overall if you look at the first innings, we were in a dominating position." Pujara also came strongly in defence of the pitch at Chepauk which attracted severe criticism from pundits, especially from England. He said that batsmen find it tougher to score when pitches like at the Chepauk provide assistance to spinners, but Indian batsmen combat similar challenges when they go overseas and face seamers on pitches that have live grass on them and provide a lot of seam movement. He conceded that batting was difficult on the Chepauk pitch in the second innings but said that pitches in Australia have cracks as well that deviate balls to awkward positions for batsmen and he hoped the English batsmen will find a way as they will get accustomed to it. "Sometimes, if you're playing on a turner, you find it difficult, but it wasn't a dangerous pitch at all," he said. "When the ball spins, people find it difficult to score runs. When we go overseas, we also play on seaming tracks where games finish in three or four days. We still have to play on pitches with grass and seam movement. When it comes to turning tracks, you can't define how much it should turn. There's a thin line, but I don't think it was a bad pitch,” Pujara said. “Yes, it always becomes difficult in the second innings, but even when we play in Australia on fourth or fifth-day tracks, balls can hit the cracks and take off. As a team, I don't think we had an issue, am sure England once they're used to it and play more matches, they'll also figure out a way." Pujara batted brilliantly in the Test series against Australia and was batting with great touch to look good for a hundred that has eluded him for than two years now in the first innings of the first Test against England before he got out on one of the most unfortunate ways of getting dismissed in cricket. Pujara played the talks around his lack of hundred down to the attributes of batting that are under his control and hoped that the three-figure mark is not that far away for him in Tests. "The way I am batting, although the three-figures haven't come, I am hoping it won't' be too far away. As a batsman, what is in my control - my practice, preparation, process - it's been wonderful. I'm confident of getting a big score very soon." The third Test between India and England is scheduled to start on February 24 at Motera in Ahmedabad. 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