Steve Smith-led Australia hammered India by nine wickets in the third Test at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Friday (March 3). After biting dust in the first two Tests, Smith led Australia to a thumping nine-wicket victory over India on a rank-turner Indore pitch. India flattened the visitors within three days in the first two Tests while Australia went a step further and avenged Nagpur and Delhi humiliation with a resounding win in Indore which ended in two days and a little over an hour. The Indore triumph has given Australia a much needed aplomb and of course a sure shot spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-2023 final which will be played at the Oval from June 7 to June 11.
India's nine-wicket drubbing has opened a whole lot of debate on the spin-friendly pitch which offered undue advantage to spinner so much so that 26 wickets were snared by the spinners out of 31 in the entire Test match while just four wickets were taken by pacers as one was run out.
ICC penalised the Indore pitch with three demerit points and rated it poor which left the cricketing world criticising the pitch. The latest to join the list of critics is former Team India selector Saba Karim. Saba has slammed the pitch at the Holkar Stadium in Indore and said that in the desperation to reach the finals of WTC, India lost the spirit of cricket.
"In our desperation to qualify for the WTC final, we have lost the spirit of Test cricket. We have No.1 and No.2 teams competing here. It would have been a joy to watch them play if the contest was between all aspects of Test cricket," Saba told India News.
Karim also went on to say that pitches like Delhi and Indore don't let the batters' ability and skillset come out to deprive fans of a full spectacle of a match.
"Australia have Steve Smith and India have Virat Kohli, arguably the top two batters in world cricket. But we haven't gotten to see their batting in this series. What are we trying to prove by making such wickets?" he added.
India and Australia will lock horns with each other in the fourth Test which will be played in Ahmedabad from March 9 to March 13. India need to win the match in any case to make it to the WTC final.
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