Talk over pitches going out of hand: Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin has never been one to hold back, be it on the ground or off it.

Post India's win in under two days in the third Test over England in Motera, Ahmedabad, the dust is literally yet to settle down over the nature of the wicket. Many former cricketers, especially those from England and Australia, have slammed the pitch, even as the Ahmedabad Test earned the dubious distinction of being the shortest ever Test match played since World War II.

In a media interaction, Team India's leading off-spinner lost his cool over “experts" slamming the Motera pitch. When asked what, according to him, was a good cricket surface, Ashwin retorted, "You tell me what is a good cricket surface?" When told that it should ideally be an "even contest between bat and ball”, Ashwin said, "Yes, of course; bowlers were in the game, batsmen need to get some runs, no question about it. What makes good surface? Who defines this? Seam on first day, then bat well and then spin on last two days? Who makes all these rules? We need to get over this."

When asked whether he thought the Motera wicket was a good surface, Ashwin said, "I don't see any players having an issue with the surface. They want to improve, look like they want to have a contest. Don't the people [who are complaining] want them to compete and instead complain about the surface Because we haven't done that on any of the tours." Captains Virat Kohli and Joe Root have both admitted that batsmen from their teams could have adapted and played better on the surface.

When asked whether India were expecting a similar dry wicket for the final Test, Ashwin said, "We hope for a good cricket match."

The off-spinner was also asked about a series of cryptic tweets he had posted on Friday on his timeline. He said his tweets were only meant for those former players and experts outside India who were blaming the pitch for England's batting collapse. Ashwin claimed that this agenda had been on for a considerable time, but that he was surprised people at home were buying these arguments. "You have a thought process and you want people to think like that. It is conditioning. What happens is that you condition people to believe in a certain way. People watched the match and said they are happy India is winning. You don't want people to go home and say India is not winning the match. It's happened for a long time. It's important people sell things but we must know what we buy."

He called the Motera wicket being called awful and poor was an agenda-driven exercise and his tweets were made precisely against it. "With respect to agenda-driven thoughts, this is exactly what my tweets meant. Some of us tend to buy stuff that people sell. I do not know why. But it's clear it's a perception of what happens. I want to put it out there. People are being hypnotised.”

Ashwin said that talk over the pitch rather than the batsmen's inability to adapt had been going on for a considerable period of time, especially when matches are played in India, and must stop. "The talk around surface is getting out of hands. Why would you do it? In New Zealand, both Tests got over in 5 days but nobody said anything."

He added that one must show patience with the pink ball as it was a new format and added a new dimension to the game. “Players will take time to get used to and adjust to its demands over time.”

He revealed that he did get many messages post the match asking about why were the pink-ball matches getting over so quickly. "Both the pink-ball matches we have played have ended in three days. I do not know what to say because when somebody just throws an opinion out there about the surface—and having had played the game—unfortunately maybe they've not played the pink-ball Test matches so they do not understand this facet of the game.

"My angst against the whole thing is the fact that when people say something there are so many of them who are watching the same picture but are not able to paint a different one compared to somebody who is driving and selling a certain case to us and this needs to stop."

He also clarified that he did not find anything offending in Yuvraj Singh's tweet, where the dashing southpaw had expressed concern about the match finishing in two days and said that former teammates and spinners Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh would have picked up 800 and 1,000 wickets had they bowled on a Motera-like track.

"The reason behind my tweets were definitely not in context to anybody in particular. When I read Yuvi pa's tweet, I actually didn't get affected at all because I didn't find that he was telling us anything, trying to suggest anything. It just felt like a really plain tweet. I have known Yuvi pa for long time and have utmost respect for him," Ashwin said.

Ashwin stated that he was not at all unhappy with the controversy over the nature of the wicket overshadowing his personal achievement of crossing 400 wickets.