Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Cricket’s Anglo-centricity, underdone pitches and unprepared grounds

The third Test of the Mastercard Australia tour of India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, originally scheduled to take place at the HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala from 1st to 5th March has now been moved to Holkar Stadium, Indore, the BCCI said in a statement on Monday. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Nagpur Test ended in under three days, with India hammering Australia by an innings and 132 runs. India are a fantastic Test team, especially at home, and despite playing two debutants, carrying an out-of-form Virat Kohli, and keeping out the red-hot Shubman Gill, they had plenty in the tank to destroy the tourists.

The quick finish did not leave fans short-changed for action, thanks to the endless hand-wringing from the Aussie media. They kept things lively off the field right through the game.

You never judge a pitch until after both teams have batted on it. But the touring press corps wrote off the Nagpur wicket way before even a single ball was bowled. A stray picture of the track, three days away from being ready for match day, did the rounds on social media. And on cue, Australian journalists outraged at the patchwork of grass and soil on that pitch — still in the process of getting ready for matchday. India were accused of systematic and selective pitch doctoring, to favour their spinners and to torment Australia’s left-hand batters.

Through the game, India made a mockery of such claims. The game was set up in the first three overs of play by India’s fast bowlers who removed Australia’s openers long before spin came into the game. Later, India’s lower middle order piled on the runs after captain Rohit Sharma’s masterclass. On a pitch, supposedly tweaked to thwart left-handed batters, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja made merry with the bat. And Mohammad Shami, a tail-ender whose batting is strictly amateur, enjoyed himself while making 37 runs. Australia were not outplayed by the treacherous pitch, but by a vastly superior Indian side that had all the skills needed to perform in typical subcontinental conditions.

As the dust settles in Nagpur — pun intended — it is worth looking at how deeply the Anglo-centric origins of the game dictate how we judge players and teams. England and Australia traditionally produced fast bowlers, and the conditions in their countries favoured the creation of seamer-friendly pitches. The subcontinent, on the other hand, has always been spin-friendly; in the tropics, the soil is more clay-heavy and brown, grass doesn’t thrive, and pitches tend to crack up a bit more easily, aiding spin. One of the abiding charms of cricket is how much the sport is dictated by the conditions — both underfoot and overhead. It’s why India are favourites to win this series against Australia, but will likely be the underdog when they face the same opponents in London for the World Test Championship final.

However, for the entirety of Test cricket’s history, the West has regarded turning tracks with contempt and suspicion, as if their very existence are an affront to the morality of cricket. The sad thing is that even the subcontinent buys into this narrative, and we are all complicit. For instance: bowling attacks always feature two or three seamers, and at times even comprise of all-pace attacks. But even on a square turner, you won’t see India play a four-man spin attack, or enter the game with just one fast bowler. Shami and Mohammad Siraj bowled beautifully in Nagpur, but neither of them had much work to do and surely India could have done without one of them. A minimum of two fast bowlers is just considered an axiom that nobody will question, even in India!

Rohit played an innings for the ages. On a pitch where Australia’s batters were hassled and frazzled, always short of time and wits, India’s captain seemed to be having a mid-afternoon stroll. No bowler came close to troubling him, and he seemed to have an extra couple of seconds to spot the lengths. One is surprised that the touring journalists didn’t actually accuse him of batting on a different pitch, for at times it did seem that way.

Yet, this masterclass, much like Rohit’s magnificent 161 against England in Chennai, will always carry that asterisk mark next to it. Even Rohit’s staunchest India fans will celebrate these knocks lesser than his century at the Oval in 2021. For, all of us suffer from a colonial hangover that makes us value SENA knocks (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) more than performances in Asia. Of Rohit’s 9 Test 100s, only one has come in SENA countries — a caveat that he will have to live with, as if it’s shameful to be better in familiar conditions.

The same yardstick doesn’t apply to, say, David Warner. Australia’s opener is regarded as one of the best to have played for his country with 8,143 runs over 102 Tests at an average over 45. Nobody caveats Warner’s career record by calling out his abject failures in India — he has played nine Tests here and averages 22, without a single century. It may be time that we let go of these double standards — and there can’t be a more opportune time than now, given the stature and strength of the BCCI at cricket’s top table.

That strength, unfortunately, has made the BCCI so spoilt and lazy that they don’t care about their biggest stakeholders — their fans. Over the weekend, the BCCI abruptly changed the venue of the third Test, barely two weeks before it is scheduled to be played. The Dharamsala stadium outfield is apparently not in a condition to host the match, and so the Test will be played at Indore. This writer is one among hundreds of fans who are set to lose large sums of money spent on travel and accommodation to be at the Dharamsala Test. The BCCI’s announcement doesn’t carry an apology, and the new venue — Indore — is not even close to Dharamsala, which may have helped fans reroute and still attend the Test.

In a tragicomic side plot to this story, the Australian media has stirred the pot by speculating whether the venue swap was done to favour Ravichandran Ashwin's great record at Indore. They are accusing the BCCI of the wrong crime though. Their biggest crime is their abject lack of empathy or regard for the hapless fans of Indian cricket. What a crying shame!