BGT 2023 - 3rd Test - Match Report
While the Indore curator can't be criticized too much for this pitch, but teams need to optimize their batting as per conditions. Mayank Agarwal with his stellar record should be in the XI.
The pitch report
Since 2019, India has been preparing spin-friendly tracks. This is not a surprise to anyone - visiting teams, Indian fans, or the media. Yet, every time the English or Australian teams visit, there is a lot of focus on the pitches. For the most part, these murmurs should be brushed away.
Why?
Well, having a variety of pitches is what makes Cricket rich. The skills you need to succeed at Perth aren’t the same as Kolkata or Kingston or Manchester. Mark Waugh (or whichever former cricketer) can moan about the ball turning from the 1st session, but pitches aren’t made in a lab. The local soil and the local weather play a big part.
And yet, this Indore pitch needs to be criticized. Here is the variation in the bounce in the 9th over of the test match, when Nathan Lyon dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara in India’s 1st innings.
A pitch that provides spin from Day 1 is fine, but the inconsistent bounce isn’t. It’s one of the key factors that ICC looks at closest when determining if a pitch deserves demerit points or not.
Why? One might ask if it makes cricket exciting to watch, what’s wrong with it?
The problem is when an inconsistent pitch is also a bouncy, fast one. Like the one in South Africa in 2018. That would be dangerous for the players.
Having said that, I don’t think the curator is to blame here. BCCI and HPCA made a complete mess and announced that the Dharamshala Test will be rescheduled to Indore just 15 days prior. Even if authorities in Indore were told about it 2-3 days prior, they had less than 3 weeks to plan for this game. And so the majority of the blame should lie on BCCI for the mismanagement of this whole situation.
Additionally, the Indian management deserves to be criticized for this as well. India at home has done brilliantly since 2013 on every type of pitch. On top of the consistency and brilliance of R Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja, India’s pacers have comfortably out-bowled the opposition pacers and that’s why they have lost just 2 games since the start of 2013.
Why they asked the Indore curator to prepare a track like this (when it’s usually batting heaven) is just hard to explain. In fact, having an underprepared pitch like this actually plays into the opposition’s hands since it reduces the quality of their spinners when compared to Ashwin, Jadeja, and Axar Patel.
Umesh Yadav’s incredible domestic record
The Vidarbha pacer has been around the Indian setup since 2013 without ever being the go-to pacer. And yet, since 2018, Yadav averages 15 at home and strikes every 27 balls. That’s not just better than other pacers, it’s better than Ashwin and Jadeja. In fact, for all Indian pacers with 100+ wickets at home, Umesh has the best strike rate at just over 46. Better than Zaheer Khan and even the great Kapil Dev.
His ability to reverse the old SG ball and the control he has while doing that makes him incredibly hard to play against. The fact that he’s a great athlete and fun to watch on the field is just a bonus. And yet, when Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are available, Umesh Yadav will have to warm the bench. That’s the great tragedy of being among the best, but not quite right up there.
Why are batting line-ups not selected keeping the conditions in mind?
For a long time, teams pick their bowling combinations by keeping the conditions in mind. India goes with 2 pacers when playing at home but then picks 4 pacers outside of Asia. It’s not just India, every team rotates the bowlers based on where they are playing. Australia has almost never picked 2 spinners in a home game but they have played three in 2 games in the series. And yet, very rarely do teams use this approach when it comes to their batters.
David Warner averages just 22 in India and 26 in England but continues to get picked for tours to the subcontinent and the Ashes. Similarly, Ajinkya Rahane, despite having an ordinary record versus spin kept getting picked for home tests. A similar question can be asked of the recent opening debate for India’s XI.
An out-of-form KL Rahul was considered an obvious player to replace by most Indian fans and even some ex-cricketers. And yet, the replacement on nearly everyone’s mind was Shubman Gill (because of his LOI form) and not Mayank Agarwal, an incredible player of spin with a proven record.
Agarwal is one of the best players of spin in the world and has shown his ability with 4 100s in 13 innings at home, despite the fact that he’s almost never had a long run. In late 2021, on a turning Wankhede track he alone out-scored the New Zealanders while Ayaz Patel picked all 10 wickets and yet he wasn’t even in the squad. The Indian management has been consistently asking curators to prepare pitches that assist spinners, so then Mayank Agarwal should be the 2nd name in the XI.
Would the result have been different if Mayank Agarwal was picked instead of Gill?
Considering Australia had just one mini-session in this game where they let the game slip a little (6 wickets for 11 runs on the 2nd morning), there was very little chance. Australia won the 1st three sessions of the game and even 20-odd extra runs in the 1st innings may not have mattered. But it’s the lack of optimizing the XI that will hurt the team’s chances in the longer run, especially as they start to transition away from Rohit, Kohli, Pujara, Ashwin, and Jadeja over the next 2 seasons.