‘Stop pointing fingers at Indian cricket’: Sunil Gavaskar points out Perth Ashes shocker to highlight hypocrisy

Sunil Gavaskar points out Perth Ashes shocker to highlight hypocrisy (PTI Photo)

India legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar unleashed a scathing takedown of what he called the rising hypocrisy in the global pitch debate. His remarks came after the Ashes 2025-26 opener in Perth as Australia crushed England by eight wickets in a match that wrapped inside two days. The Optus Stadium surface saw 32 wickets tumble in just six sessions, and 200 crossed in just one innings — Australia’s match-winning chase in the final innings.

This was days after the track at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, received harsh criticism after the first Test between India and South Africa in just 2.5 days. The Eden Gardens track was criticised by many former cricketers, including Michael Vaughan, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Anil Kumble, but the Perth surface received no such criticism.

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One difference between the two pitches, though, was that Optus Stadium's surface got better for batting as the game progressed, while the pitch at Eden had variable bounce from the beginning.

Gavaskar in his evaluation mentioned the Sydney Test between Australia and India earlier this year, where 15 wickets were taken on the first day.

Gavaskar in his column for Mid-Day wrote: “The Perth Test match has ended in less than two days with 32 wickets having fallen, including 19 on the first day, but as yet there’s not a word of criticism about the pitch there. Last year too, 17 wickets fell on Day One at Perth between India and Australia, and I can’t recall a critical word about the pitch, which had more grass on it than usual.

“The same was in Sydney where 15 wickets fell on Day One. The argument, as enumerated by the curator in Perth last year, was ‘this is Perth, Australia, and you will get bounce’. Fine, but then when the pitch affords turn, why can’t it be accepted that this is India, and there will be turn? If you complain about the bounce, then the counter argument is you can’t play fast bowling. Why is there never a counter argument that you can’t play spin bowling when the pitch affords turn in India?”

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Former cricketers Ravichandran Ashwin and Aakash Chopra did voice their opinions on social media, pointing out the hypocrisy.

“Is it the old syndrome of mistake being made by their umpires being called human error, while those errors made by sub-continent umpires was cheating? So similarly, is it that the curators there have no agenda, but those in India do? It’s good to see some of our recently retired cricketers asking questions about 19 wickets falling in a day.

“So guys, it’s time to stop pointing fingers at Indian cricket as there are three of the same hand pointing back at you,” he added.