NEW DELHI: Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra expressed his views on the pitch conditions following the conclusion of the second Test between India and South Africa in Cape Town, emphasizing the need for an honest evaluation of playing surfaces around the world.
India secured a seven-wicket victory inside two days to level the two-match series 1-1, prompting discussions about the state of pitches in Test cricket.
On his YouTube channel, Chopra concurred with Indian captain Rohit Sharma‘s statement that pitches globally should be assessed using the same criteria. “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,” Chopra asserted.

Chopra questioned the notion of justifying extreme conditions, highlighting that neither overly challenging pitches nor two-day turners are conducive to good cricket.

“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,” he added.

The former right-hand batter stressed that the current trend of extreme pitch conditions, whether in Cape Town, Wanderers, Perth, Ahmedabad, Indore, or Delhi, does not contribute to the essence of Test cricket.
Chopra believes that these pitches, rather than providing a challenging contest between bat and ball, rely on luck.
Chopra expressed concern about the declining excitement in Test cricket, pointing to instances such as South Africa sending a second-string team to New Zealand and Pakistan resting Shaheen Shah Afridi in the final Test against Australia.
He emphasized that without good pitches, the interest in Test cricket is likely to diminish further, calling for a balanced and fair approach to pitch preparation worldwide.

(With inputs from ANI)