India Test Team captain Virat Kohli blasted the International Cricket Council (ICC) for calling Nagpur pitch (the track where the third Test of the ongoing series against South Africa was played) poor.
For the record, the pitches during the ongoing series have become controversial as the pitches provided for all three Tests have seen unpredictable bounce and turn right from day one.
India won the first and third Test matches with both matches being completed within three days. During a pressmeet, Kohli pointed out that nothing is wrong with the pitches but the mindset if people.
“Well, there have been three scores of under 50 runs in South Africa but I haven’t seen any sort of articles on that. Teams have been bundled out under 100 for about six times in South Africa. Never saw any articles written on that.
Articles are there to be written. It’s a mindset or an opinion of someone. I don’t relate to it, I don’t understand it and I certainly don’t entertain it. It doesn’t bother me or the team,” Kohli told.
“I am talking about anyone. I am not only talking about people writing articles in general. It’s an assessment that happens in every condition and at every ground. Unfortunately, the situation in our country is highlighted a bit too much and that’s a fact.
Because only thing we talk about is the pitch and when we were in South Africa, the only thing we talked about is how badly we played. Its been going on for a while. The Indian team is certainly going into a new mindset and changing their thinking but I don’t think that the mindset of those around us has changed.
Because when we don’t play well then we are criticized for our techniques and when visitors don’t play well it is always the wicket. When the team wins the players need to be supported. But in India people always try to find things to criticize. I cannot understand the logic,” Kohli fumed.