Rohit defends Motera wicket after India's convincing win

|| India Correspondent ||

Team India have won the third Test against England convincingly in Ahmedabad within two days. Having scored 66 and 25* in both innings of the low-scoring third Test, India opener, Rohit Sharma defended the wicket, referring to it as a 'normal, typical Indian wicket'.

His comments came as the pitch became a matter of debate ever since they have started taking on England in the series. And, now they emerged victorious by 10 wickets after dinner on Day 2. However, Rohit said that there were no demons on the pitch and it was a good wicket to bat on as well.

"The pitch had nothing, no demons as they say. It was a nice pitch to bat on," Rohit Sharma said in the press conference. If you look at the 30 wickets to fall, I don’t see anything that the pitch did. Batsmen didn’t apply technique. It was not just them (England), but us also. The pitch was completely fine. According to me it was a normal pitch, a typical Indian wicket."

However, Rohit Sharma said that the Chennai pitch in the second Test turned a lot more than the one at Ahmedabad where the pink-ball Test took place.

"The Chennai pitch turned a lot more than this. We applied ourselves there, we didn’t bat well in this Test. The ball didn’t spin, most batters got out to straight balls," he shared. "It was more about shot selection – whether we can play the cut shot, the sweep shot. In Chennai, there was a rough. Here there was no rough, Axar was getting wickets from straight balls. It's a good learning for the batsmen, we can understand from this. We’ve not played spin so much with the pink ball."

However, not only Rohit Sharma but India captain Virat Kohli also had defended the pitch at the post-match presentation.

"To be honest, I don’t think the quality of batting was at all up to standard from both teams. They were bundled out…and lack of application from both sides. The ball was coming on nicely yesterday and the odd ball was turning. It was a very good wicket to bat on. But the batting was below-par from both sides. It was bizarre that out of 30 wickets, 21 was to straight balls. It was down to lapse of concentration or playing for turn and beating on the inside," he added.