Mohammad Azharuddin shares batting tips on rank turners; 'rubber soles instead of spikes'

The third India-England Test match at the Narendra Modi stadium, which ended within two days started a debate around "rank turners", with several former players criticising the pitch and some like Sunil Gavaskar crediting the Indian spinners. Wading his opinion, former India captain and one of the finest players of spin Mohammed Azharuddin said that wearing shoes with rubber soles, assured footwork and proper shot-selection are the keys to success for batsmen on a "rank turner" like the Motera pitch. 

Azharuddin made the interesting observation in a series of tweets a day after India crushed England and went up 2-1 in the four-match series. The 58-year-old suggested that wearing shoes with rubber soles could be a better option than the ones having spikes.

'Rubber soles don't hamper the ability of batsmen'

"It makes little sense to wear spikes when batting. Rubber soles don't hamper the ability of batsmen. I have seen some amazing Test knocks being played on tough surfaces by batsmen who wore shoes with rubber soles," Azharuddin tweeted. "The argument that batsmen can slip when running between wickets is countered by the fact that in Wimbledon, all tennis players wear shoes with rubber soles," he added.

"And the ones that come to mind are not just Indians like Sunil Gavaskar Mohinder Amarnath and Dilip Vengsarkar but also many a visiting batsman like Sir Vivian Richards, Mike Gatting Allan Border, Clive Lloyd and several others," he further said.

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Azharuddin, who played 99 Tests and 334 ODIs between 1985 and 2000, was disappointed with the batsmen's abject surrender. "It was disappointing to watch the batsmen come a cropper in the Ahmedabad Test. The key to batting on such dry tracks and rank turners is shot-selection and assured footwork," 

Only two batsmen -- one each from both sides -- could score a half-century as 28 wickets fell to the spinners on a Motera pitch that many players felt was not ideal for a Test match. Joe Root and his men struggled on the spin-friendly pitch, managing 112 and 81 in their two innings respectively. Left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who was the destructor-in-chief, relentlessly hit the good length areas to bamboozle the England batsmen and grab a match-haul of 11 for 70. The final Test begins in Motera on March 4.

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(With PTI inputs)