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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rated the pitch at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore as “poor” which was used for the third Test in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia.
The third Test between India and Australia was entirely dominated by spinners from both teams. The match ended in the first session on day three, with Australia defeating India by 9 wickets after chasing a small target of just 76 runs.
The ICC has deemed the pitch at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore as “poor” under the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.
With this, the Holkar Cricket Stadium has now received three demerit points as a result after ICC Match Referee Chris Broad submitted his report after consultation with both Indian captain Rohit Sharma and Australian skipper Steve Smith.
Originally, the third Test between India and Australia was supposed to be played at Dharamshala. However, the match was shifted from Dharamshala to Indore on February 13, two weeks before the start of the match on March 1 as the outfield in Dharamshala was not yet up to par after it was relaid.
BCCI now have 14 days if they wish to appeal against the sanction. According to the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, a venue will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for a period of 12 months if it accumulates five or more demerit points over a five-year rolling period.
Right from day one of the third Test, spinners were into the game enjoying some sharp turn and uneven bounce from the pitch. After winning the toss and opting to bat first, India ended the first session at a score of 84/7. At the lunch interval, Indian head coach Rahul Dravid was seen inspecting the pitch with the curator.
Out of the total 31 wickets which fell in the match, 26 were taken by spinners while only four wickets went to the pacers with one run-out.
“The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start,” said ICC match referee Chris Broad.
“The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match.”
Earlier in 2017, the Pune pitch was rated as “poor” when Australia defeated India in the first Test by 333 runs. Out of the total 40 wickets which fell in that game, 31 wickets were taken by spinners. Interestingly, Broad was the match referee in the Pune Test as well.
The pitches of the first two Tests of the ongoing Test series in Nagpur and Delhi were rated “average” by match referee Andy Pycroft.
However, the Indian captain mentioned that India wants to play on their strengths and are happy to continue playing on these types of pitches regardless of what is being said outside.
“Honestly speaking, these are the kind of pitches we want to play on. This is our strength, so when you’re playing at your home, you always play to your strength, not worry about what people outside are talking about,” said Rohit.
Meanwhile, the Australian captain also had the same perspective about the pitch and said that these pitches are far better than those that don’t produce results after five days of cricket.
“I personally really enjoy playing on these kind of wicket. I prefer this than just a genuine flat wicket that goes five days and can be boring in stages,” said Smith.
“There’s always something happening on these wickets. You’ve got to really work hard for your runs. But it’s showed that the guys can do it. Guys can do it, you’ve got to work hard for them and you need some luck. With this one, whether it might have been a little bit too extreme, potentially from the first ball. I’m not really entirely sure, but it was still another enjoyable.”
With this win at Indore, Australia have qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, which will be played at The Oval on June 7. On the other hand, India needs to win the remaining Test in the series to book their place in the final of the WTC for the second time.
If India fails to win the fourth Test against Australia or the match gets ended in a draw, Sri Lanka will have a chance to qualify for the WTC finals if they win the away series against New Zealand 2-0.
The series now stands at 2-1, with the final Test of the series to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad from March 9.
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