"Hope All Those Whiners Are Happy": Ravi Shastri's Scathing Take On 'Pitch Talk'

Even before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy began, the 'pitch talk' dominated headlines, with a section of Australian media and some of their former cricketers accusing India of 'customising' pitches as per their needs. After the first three Tests ended within 3 days each, the 4th Test in Ahmedabad saw a flat surface, fetching little to no help for the bowlers while the batters continued to pile runs. Sitting in the commentary box, former India head coach Ravi Shastri triggered a debate, asking if a 3-day result-oriented pitch is better or a 5-day one that produces no result (Ahmedabad pitch).

"We need to talk about these numbers - 91 wickets over seven days and 15 wickets over four days," a debate emerged on Day 5 of the 4th Test. Shastri then said during commentary, as per Indian Express: "So what do you want, this kind of a pitch or the other pitches? You don't want to finish in three days yes, totally agree, but that could also be because of incompetent batting. I hope all those whiners about Indian pitches are happy now."

Earlier, former Australia cricketer Mark Waugh had called the Ahmedabad pitch a '22-day wicket', criticising India for going to an absolute extreme after the pitches in the first three Tests earned them negative feedback.

The last three Tests were two-day pitches, but this is a 22-day pitch. It's not good enough, [India] knew they only needed a draw to win the series, and India are batting like they want a draw, very disappointing we won't get a result here," he had said.

When it comes to ICC's verdict on the Indian pitches, the surfaces prepared for the first two Tests were rated "average" by the apex body but the third Test wicket was labelled "poor".

It would be interesting to see what the verdict on