The third Test match of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy was wrapped up on Day 3 of as Australia eased past the target by 9 wickets, in Indore. This is not the first match of the four-match series which ended on the third day, but earlier first two Test matches too ended within three days.
When asked about the situation where Test matches are not lasting for five days, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma gave a cheeky response as he claimed that the situation is the same even outside India.
“Matches don’t last five days even outside India. The game in South Africa got over in 3 days. In Pakistan, people were saying it's so boring, so we are making things interesting,” Sharma said in a post-match presentation.
Meanwhile, Rohit was also asked about the nature of the pitch in Indore, which surprised the Indian batters the most, Indian captain said that the discussion should revolve around the gritty knock of Cheteshwar Pujara and Usman Khawaja and the brilliant spell of Nathan Lyon.
“This pitch talk is getting just a bit too much. Every time we play in India, there’s only focus on the pitch. Why are people not asking me about Nathan Lyon? How well he bowled? How well Pujara batted in the second innings. How well Usman Khawaja played,” Rohit added. He further claimed that before every series, the host decides what kind of surface they want to offer and that’s the same privilege we are enjoying here in India.
“It was our mutual decision that we wanted to play on this kind of wickets. So, I don’t think we are putting pressure on our batters,” Rohit said. The top-order batter further admitted that his batters didn’t bat well in the first innings. “Once they got an 80-90 run lead, we had to produce another inning with the bat and we were not able to do that. If we had batted well in the first innings then things would have been different,” Rohit concluded.