The Indore pitch caused major outrage after it turned square in first session of Day 1 itself. Former Australian cricketers Matthew Hayden, Mark Waugh and Michael Clarke were critical of Indore pitch as it provided "4.8 degrees of turn". They were not happy with how the pitch behaved even when Australian spinners bundled out India’s first innings for 109 in little over one session.
After the crushing defeat by nine wickets on Day 3, Rohit in the post-match press conference took the criticism of the pitch head on. Rohit also revealed that it was a unanimous decision to prepare a rank turner for the third Test.
“Former cricketers did not play on pitches like this. So I don't know. Like I said, this is the kind of pitch we wanted to play in and this is our strength. When you play in home, you want to play to your strength and not worry about what people outside are speaking about. And had we not gotten results, we would have thought otherwise,” Rohit told reporters.
Almost frustrated about the talk around Indian pitches as first three Tests ended on the third day, Rohit wanted reporters to ask about the outstanding performances of Nathan Lyon who took 11 wickets including a eight-fer in second innings and half-centuries from Cheteshwar Pujara and Usman Khawaja.
“This pitch talk is getting too much. Every time we play in India, the focus is only on pitch. Why are people not asking me about Nathan Lyon and how well he bowled? Or, how well Pujara batted in the second innings? Or, how well Usman Khawaja played? Those are the things I can give you a details on, but not on pitch because it is absolutely not necessary,” the Indian opener said.
In the post-match presentation, Rohit accepted that it was the dismal show in first innings that cost India the Test.
"When you lose a Test match, there's a lot of things that didn't go our way. To start with, we didn't bat well in the first innings. We understand how important it is to put runs on the board in the first innings. And obviously when they got a 80-90 run lead, we needed to put in a big performance with the bat but we couldn't do that,” the 35-year-old told the broadcasters.
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