The shortest-ever Test match in historical past that includes India and South Africa in Cape Town created loads of buzz after the sport ended as Rohit Sharma let it rip in a fiery press convention on Thursday. The India captain minced no phrases and referred to as out ICC for its double-standards after 33 wickets fell inside five sessions at Newlands. Rohit blatantly addressed the difficulty, calling a spade a spade when he mentioned that he and the Indian staff haven’t any points taking part in on completely different sort of surfaces around the globe, however expects the ICC and the opposition groups to not create a fuss about Indian pitches, which has typically been given phrases equivalent to ‘rank-turners’ and ‘mud bowls’.

Last 12 months, through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Indore pitch on which the Third Test was performed on was given a ‘below-average’ score by the ICC. Even the Ahmedabad wicket on which the World Cup last was performed was rated ‘common’, a call that didn’t sit too effectively with many. As for the pitch utilized in Cape Town, nobody addressed the elephant within the room till the second day, when Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar referred to as it ‘harmful’ and Pollock labelled the bottom employees as incompetent, failing to place collectively a deck that’s wholesome for Test cricket. Rohit, as everyone knows, joined the dialogue and regardless that he didn’t have something unhealthy to say for the pitch – he in reality, acknowledged the problem – the India captain hoped no additional fingers can be pointed on Indian pitches.

Rohit’s choice was supported by a number of former cricketers, who rallied behind the skipper in his name. Rohit’s former India teammate Virender Sehwag, in his typical trend, posted a message on X, aptly exposing the identical hypocrisy. “Aap karo toh Chamatkaar. Hum karein toh pitch bekaar (When you do it, it’s a miracle, but when we do it, the pitch is ‘poor’) 107 overs – Test Match over. Also proves that if anything’s there for the fast bowlers, we [India] are more threatening with our quality. Bumrah and Siraj were spectacular and a good beginning to 2024.”

Sehwag’s former India opener associate Aakash Chopra joined in. The ex-India batter, who took a shy dig on the matter on Day 1 of the Test by predicting a two-day end, went at size discussing the pitch debacle on his YouTube video and handed his judgment at Rohit’s little outburst.

Chopra asks the robust questions

“The big question is what is right and what is wrong. Rohit said no one should talk about the pitch and that the match referees should watch properly because if you felt the World Cup final pitch was bad, what sort of pitch was this? He is right,” he mentioned.

“My thinking is – Is this pitch right? Are the one-and-a-half to two-day-match turners prepared in India, right? We are trying to justify one extreme with another. The truth is neither this nor that is right. A bad pitch should be called bad, whether it is ours or someone else’s.”

Even Mayank Agarwal, Rohit’s former opening associate, took a sky dig on the ICC, when he posted on X, “What if 20 wickets fell on Day 1 in India,” aptly summing up the state of affairs. As Mayank identified, 23 wickets fell on the opening day, and three extra on Day 2. A 3rd day, because it seems, wasn’t wanted.