Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], February 26 (ANI): England’s defeat in the pink-ball Test inside two days might have raised questions on the quality of pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium by former cricketers, but Kevin Pietersen has indirectly rubbished all the criticism and wants the English batsmen to realise from their mistakes.
England were 74/2 at one stage in the day-night Test after winning the toss but Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin spun a web over hosts in both essays to hand India a comprehensive 10 wicket win. Former skipper Pietersen wants England batsmen to acknowledge the poor display with the bat rather than questioning the quality of the wicket.
After the win, India skipper Virat Kohli and batsman Rohit Sharma had said that most batsmen from both teams got out off straight balls and it was not a case of pitch misbehaving a lot. Pietersen on Friday cited Rohit and Kohli’s example and called out on England batsmen to be at least honest with themselves and not to blame anyone else for the defeat.
“I hope there are some England batters waking up this morning and being honest with themselves at least, by acknowledging their batting was dreadful on that wicket?! I’ve heard Virat & Rohit say theirs was!” Pietersen tweeted.
Speaking after the game, Rohit said: “Pitch didn’t do anything, honestly speaking, if I can recollect, most of the batsmen got out on straighter deliveries. We also as a batting unit, made a lot of mistakes while batting. We also did not bat well in the first innings, the pitch did not have demons, there is nothing like that,” Rohit said during the virtual press conference on Thursday.
Even skipper Kohli was vocal about the dreadful batting display from the two teams. Kohli said the quality of batting was to be blamed as most of the batsmen got out to balls that didn’t turn.
Meanwhile, England is out of the race for a place in the final of the ICC World Test Championship.
England has dropped to 64.1 percentage points on the points table, which is now led by India with 71 percentage points. New Zealand is assured of a place in the final with 70 percentage points.
India need to either win or draw the last Test to stay ahead of Australia, who is in third place with 69.2 percentage points. (ANI)
