Doesn't want importance to foreign players criticising pitches: Gavaskar

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar does not want importance to be given to foreign players, who are criticizing the Indian pitches, and said they will keep doing it till the time they are getting publicity out of it.

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Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has been quite vocal in his criticism of the pitches used in the ongoing Test series between India and England. Ahead of the fourth Test, Vaughan had shared a picture of him standing in dugup soil with a bat in his hands. "Preparations going well for the 4th Test !! #OnOn #INDvENG," he had written in the caption.

 

"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.

India had managed to defeat England by ten wickets within two days in the pink-ball Test. The match saw both India and England batsmen failing to shine and getting out to balls that didn't turn and skidded through from the spinners.

But critics have looked to blame the pitch for the failure of the batsmen. Commenting on the pitch during the match, Vaughan had tweeted: "Let's be honest this is not a 5 day Test pitch !! #INDvENG."

Also, former England spinner Monty Panesar on Sunday criticised the pitch and said: "It was like playing club cricket on a Saturday in England. When we play club cricket, we will bowl a team out for under 100, and then it's difficult to chase because it's a turning pitch. I think being the biggest stadium in the world, Narendra Modi Stadium deserves longer Test matches because people want to see how good the wicket is, you look at the stadium, beautiful views, and what an amazing stadium India has produced. It does not deserve a two-day Test match that's under 900 balls, you might just play on a park, if you are going to play this type of cricket."

However, after the third Test, Rohit Sharma had clarified that he did not think the pitch had any demons. Even India skipper Virat Kohli was vocal about the dreadful batting display from the two teams.

Both the team are currently competing against each other in the fourth and the final Test of the series. At stumps on Thursday, India's score read 24/1 with Rohit (8*) and Pujara (15*) at the crease -- trailing the visitors by 181 runs in the first innings.