Michael Kasprowicz opens up on Indore pitch controversy; 'We’ve got to adapt and adjust'

Former Australian pacer Michael Kasprowicz is baffled by the excessive focus on the pitches in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. According to him, these pitches are typical of those found in India and Australia and teams must learn to adapt and adjust to them. The first two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi, where the pitches were rated as "average" by the ICC, were won by India. Australia, however, won the third Test in Indore, which was rated "poor" by the ICC. Despite this, several experts, including former Australian captains Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh, have criticised the pitches, especially the one in Indore.

“When I say don’t believe the hype, I know the odd ball was turning square, and it got a poor rating,” Kasprowicz said after the third Test match between India and Australia. He himself was part of the Australian team that won in India in 2004. 

“But I remember turning up to the Bangalore Test in 1998, and I’ve got a picture of me standing on the wicket. It honestly looks like a dry creek bed. There’s no grass, but it’s got these cracks and spider cracks all down the whole face of it. And you just go well, like that’s what we’re gonna play on. And guess what? We’ve got to adapt and adjust. That’s the game of Test cricket,” he said. 

Australia lost the first Test in Nagpur but dominated the first two days of the Delhi Test before collapsing on day three to be all out for 113 in their second innings. As a result, they lost the match by six wickets, going down 0-2 in the four-Test series. The fourth Test is scheduled to start in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

India vs Australia: Full squads

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.

Australia squad: Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (c), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson.

Image: BCCI