Indian skipper Virat Kohli was unhappy with the balls that were used in the third test (Ranchi) against Australia.
Both Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh managed to shrug off Indian bowlers after losing two early wickets on the fifth day of the match and this allowed the Aussies to share the credits in the end.
The 28-year-old was asked in the post-match conference that whether the pitch was not upto the billing as it was expected, to which he replied:
“It was more to do with the ball. I don’t think the ball was hard enough for it to bite off the surface. Even the one that got changed wasn’t up to standards. I don’t know the lot of balls that is coming in, it had nothing to do with the wicket. I think when you don’t have the hardness in the ball it’s very difficult for the guys to generate pace off the wicket.
“Hard new ball, 40 overs later again, the game gets delayed… If you have a hard ball throughout, then it’s a different ball game altogether. Probably when they (Australia) were bowling as well. The harder ball would have made a difference. That’s what happens. That’s Test cricket. Conditions always don’t go your way. You got to test yourselves. Credit to them for playing out the draw.”
The Indian bowlers minimized the threat by dismissing Renshaw and Smith early in the game, but Handscomb and Marsh steadied the ship by playing a partnership of 124 runs off 373 balls.
The old ball was firstly changed in the 71st over of the innings and India opted to change it again as soon as it was made available. In as early as 12th overs of the new ball, Marsh was dismissed by Ashwin.
Talking about the same, the Aussie skipper Steve Smith dismissed all the claims.
“Haven’t really thought about it. Both teams have to play with the same SG balls,” he said.
