Former England captain Michael Vaughan has joined veteran India wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik and former Australia spinner Brad Hogg in censuring a rank-turner on display during the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test match between India and Australia in Indore today.
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Vaughan took to social media platform Twitter to compare the surface to a “very poor” Day 5 pitch. Notwithstanding spin-assisting pitches being the strength of sub-continent teams at home, this particular pitch is doing massive disservice to a five-day Test match to spoil the whole purpose of the format.
Vaughan’s scathing remarks came on the back of Australia bundling out India for 109 in 33.2 overs on the first day of a Test. The fact that India captain Rohit Sharma (12) won the toss and chose to bat in anticipation of putting on board a challenging first innings total says a lot about the extent to which even the hosts misread this surface.
Australia captain Steven Smith introducing spin for the first time in the sixth over reaped immediate results for him as both Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon were among the wickets in their first respective spells.
While Kuhnemann dismissed both the Indian opening batters in successive overs, Lyon was successful in sending Cheteshwar Pujara (1) back to the pavilion. A shocker of a delivery for the ninth over of a Test match turned viciously in addition to not bouncing according to the expected lines to leave the right-handed batter in utter shock.
Michael Vaughan condemns Indore Stadium pitch for India vs Australia 3rd Test
It was due to a dismissal like Pujara’s that must’ve inspired Vaughan to tweet with respect to Indore Stadium pitch. In spite of all the criticism, Vaughan also made it a point to mention “great viewing” all batters being restricted to mere “walking wickets”.
Nice to see Nathan Lyon gather the ball for a run out at the bowling end 😜😜😜 #INDvAUS .. btw .. it’s a very poor 5 day pitch but it’s great viewing .. 👍👍
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 1, 2023
Playing only his second Test, Kuhnemann registered a maiden five-wicket haul as bowling figures of 9-2-16-5 comprised wickets of Shubman Gill (21), Shreyas Iyer (0), Ravichandran Ashwin (3) and Umesh Yadav (17). Lyon, meanwhile, dismissed the likes of Ravindra Jadeja (4) and Srikar Bharat (17) in addition to Pujara in bowling figures reading 11.2-2-35-3.
