A poor drainage system and below-par facilities at the Green Park Stadium once again led to a debate on whether India should play red-ball cricket in a limited number of centres.
Back in 2019, Virat Kohli had proposed that Test cricket should be played only at five major centres, on the lines of Australia and England, who have permanent venues for red-ball fixtures.
On Tuesday, after emerging as the player of the series, Ravichandran Ashwin agreed that playing in limited centres certainly helps the players. However, he left it to the Indian cricket board to decide on the future course of action.
“In this era of social media, everybody has a viewpoint. Not necessarily everything needs to be right about this. I am just clearing the deck for it. Firstly, what are the benefits that Indian cricketers attain by having so many Test centres is that you have got cricketers who come and play Test cricket from every nook and corner of this country,” Ashwin said.
“It is a huge country and it has triggered that sort of urgency and that sort of passion among cricketers to be able to come and play for this country. That is a big positive.
“The second of it is that, there are certain requisite ingredients that goes into making a Test match happen. Like for the weather and the kind of drainage that we need to be able to invest in. These are no-brainers. But having said all this, does it help a player if you have just a few Test centres? Most certainly it does,” Ashwin said.
Australia has its specific Test centres in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. “When we go to Australia, they play India only at five Test centres. They don’t play us at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. They don’t play us at any of the other venues there,” Ashwin said,
“Because, they know that they won’t be very familiar with the conditions. So do England. They have certain select Test centres and that’s where they play. Some of those are only white-ball centres,” the spinner said, adding with a smile, “Can we do it here? That’s above my pay grade. I cannot comment on that…”
The Green Park has an outdated drainage system and three super soppers were used to dry the ground after rain. Even though it did not rain a drop on Sunday, a wet outfield did not allow play to begin. Only 35 overs could be bowled across the first three days of the Test, leading to question marks over the facilities available at the iconic stadium.
After guiding India to a convincing seven-wicket win and keeping it on course for a World Test Championship (WTC) final berth, Ashwin - claiming 11 wickets in the series - heaped praise on captain Rohit Sharma for a positive mindset.
“Winning this game was important for us,” Ashwin remarked. “It was a massive win in the context of the WTC. Rohit was keen that we needed at least 80 overs to bowl at them. He said even if we get bowled out for 230, it’s okay. He set the tone by stepping out aggressively right from the first ball…”
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