Michael Vaughan and Sunil Gavaskar
Legendary Sunil Gavaskar wasn't too happy over foreign players giving an opinion about Indian pitches as he said that they will keep doing it until they get publicity. Many ex-players including former England skipper Michael Vaughan have been vocal about Motera wicket following India's two-day finish in the third Test against England.
Vaughan had even questioned the ICC for allowing India to get away with such surfaces. He even termed it as a 'shallow' victory for India. Talking about the much-debated surface during the fourth and final Test in Ahmedabad, Gavaskar said that the discussion should rather be about bowling and batting.
"The discussion should have been around bowling and batting. The batsmen got bowled or were given LBW, how can we call it a bad pitch. Why do we give this much importance to foreign players? Why should we discuss what they are saying," Gavaskar told host broadcaster Star Sports on Thursday.
"When India gets all out on 36 runs, then are the comments of Kapil Dev, (Sachin) Tendulkar, (Sourav) Ganguly or (Virender) Sehwag given importance by that country's media or TV channel. Not at all. Then why are we giving importance to them?
And when we will not give them importance, they will learn the lesson. Till the time they know that they will get importance and publicity, they will keep doing it. England team did not complain. Joe Root did not complain," he added.
The Axar Patel-R Ashwin duo delivered again as Indian spinners accounted bundled England out for 205 runs in the final Test of the series. Axar picked four while Ashwin bagged three to keep the hosts in the driver's seat on home turf.
India currently lead the four-match series 2-1 and need at least a draw in the ongoing Test to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand at Lord's.
