Rahul Dravid ‘respectfully disagreed’ with the ‘average’ rating for pitches in Chennai and Ahmedabad that hosted India’s games against Australia and Pakistan respectively in the ongoing 2023 World Cup. The India head coach reasoned that playing surfaces for ODI games must bring to light different skill sets as opposed to throwing up 350-scores every time.
The ICC recently published ratings for pitches and outfields for matches played until October 15 with only two playing surfaces, the ones used in the aforementioned two games, receiving the average rating. Spin accounted for six and four wickets respectively as India bowled both Australia and Pakistan for sub-200 totals. Dravid, who was asked about the ratings, began answering in Hindi before switching to English to explain himself.
“I will definitely respectfully disagree with the average rating given for those two wickets,” Dravid said on Saturday (October 21) a day before India’s game against New Zealand in Dharamsala. “I think they were good wickets. Maybe I will answer this in English because I might get myself into trouble by saying something.
“If you only want to see 350 games and rate only those wickets as good, then I disagree with that. I think you have to see different skills on display as well. It’s not about if we wanted to see only fours and sixes being hit, then we have T20 wickets as well, where, honestly, in Delhi or in Pune, we probably [played on] 350-plus wickets as well. Only those are good wickets, then why are the bowlers here? Why have spinners at all, for that matter? If you all want spinners to come in and bowl 10 – 60 and go, so that you can watch fours and sixes and one ball spins or two balls spin and you rate that as average.
“I disagree with that because I think we should see all skills on display, the ability to rotate strike through the middle. See the quality of watching [Ravindra] Jadeja bowl or a [Mitchell] Santner bowl or a [Adam] Zampa bowl or watching Kane Williamson rotate the strike through the middle… Virat Kohli and KL Rahul the way they batted against Australia. Those are skills as well. Those also need to come out and be shown and be displayed.
“Some of the wickets, even we have played, I mean, honestly, in Delhi and Pune, rotating the strike in the middle overs wasn’t necessarily a very difficult skill. The contest was about who could hit more fours and sixes. So that’s not the only way, in my opinion, respectfully, to be able to judge wickets. I think we need to have a better way of deciding what is good and average.”
For the record, the ICC has a six-point rating scale to judge pitches ranging from ‘Very Good’ to ‘Unfit’. ‘Average’ is the last of the ratings that earns no demerit points to the venue involved. As per the governing body’s guidelines for ODI and T20I pitches – “the objective shall be to provide a pitch that is more favourable to the batters by providing a surface for good shot-making, and behaves consistently throughout the course of the match so as to provide an even contest for both teams.”
Curiously, a ‘very good’ or a ‘good’ ODI pitch is one that offers little or no turn.
ODI/T20I Pitch Rating | Unevenness | Seam Movement | Carry and/or Bounce | Turn | Demerit Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Very Good | Little or no unevenness | Little or no seam movement | Good | Little or no turn | None |
Good | Little or no unevenness | Little or no seam movement | Just lacking | Little or no turn | None |
Average | Occasional | Occasional | Lacking | Occasional | None |
Below Average | More than occasional | More than occasional | Minimal | More than occasional | 1 Point |
Poor | Excessive | Excessive | Very minimal | Excessive | 3 Points |
Unfit | 5 Points |
* Pitch is rated ‘Unfit’ only if it is dangerous
To illustrate his theory of different skills coming to the fore, Dravid harked back to India’s T20 World Cup game against South Africa last year, on a Perth pitch that offered bounce and seam movement and saw India score only 133, a total their opponents took 19.4 overs to chase down. Incidentally, that pitch was rated ‘Good’.
“We played the T20 World Cup in Australia. In Perth, we played a game 138 plays 138. India plays South Africa, [it was] seaming and swinging all over the place. That’s a T20 game. I don’t know what rating was given to that. I hope – maybe I hope that was rated average as well.
“World T20 final Pakistan plays England again, 130 scored in a T20 game. I am not complaining about that. I think it is good, it is great. That wicket at Perth was good. It challenged different skills. It brought different skills out on display. And I am saying this even though we have lost those games. So that is no problem with that. Sometimes wickets will turn a bit, sometimes they will seam a bit, they will swing a bit, they will bounce a bit. All we want to see is sixes and fours being hit in 350 scores as good wickets, then I disagree.”
Dravid asserted that India being a diverse cricketing country would always provide for varied conditions and offer different challenges for teams and only those with the ability to adapt on the go in a long tournament like the World Cup would eventually be part of the cream that will rise to the top.
“So, in a tournament, I just want to see variety, no? I mean, yes, there are sometimes there will be some good wickets in a tournament. There will be sometimes 350 scored and games that go at high scoring. There will sometimes be wickets where the ball turns, bringing the spinners into play. There will be other wickets where it might seam a little bit. You have got a long tournament, you are playing in India, different parts of the country, there will be different wickets, different challenges. The teams that are able to cope with all of those challenges and deal with that are the ones that will end up being successful.
“We as a team have to be able to focus on that and work with that. You want to standardize everything and make every wicket a 350 wicket? I mean – and there are very good skills on display, even in a 350-plus wicket. Yes, we see some great hitting. We see some terrific shots being played and all that. But other skills get missed out. And that’s fine on that particular day. But the first few games, when it spins a little bit or something happens, it brings the bowlers into the game. You start rating them as average. Where does it leave the bowlers? Why are they coming then? If all we want to see is fours – like I said – we have T20, play two T20 matches.”