‘Not ideal for Tests’: Bhajji, Laxman, Yuvraj slam Motera pitch

TIL Desk Sports/ Several former players, including India’s Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman, on Thursday said that the turning Motera pitch, on which India defeated England by 10 wickets inside two days, was not ideal for Test cricket, an opinion that was not shared by the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.

Gavaskar said the overtly defensive mindset of the batsmen was responsible for their dismissals as most of them got out to straighter deliveries. India demolished England by 10 wickets to go 2-1 up in the four-match series with the spinners taking all but one of the 20 opposition wickets. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel had a match-haul of 11/70 while senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took seven wickets to reach the milestone 400 wickets in Test cricket.

“It was not an ideal pitch for a Test match and even India collapsed to 145 in their first innings,” former India batting stalwart Laxman said. Harbhajan, one of the four members of the Indian 400 Test wicket club, also felt the same. “It is not an ideal pitch. India would also have been in trouble if England had scored 200 in their first innings. But it (the pitch) is the same for both sides,” said the 40-year-old off-spinner.