India head coach Rahul Dravid is not losing sleep over International Cricket Council's (ICC) rating of Indore pitch and the widespread criticism around spin-friendly tracks where the first three Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Tests have ended within three days.
"I won't go too much into it. Match referee is entitled to share his opinion. It doesn't really matter if I agree with his reading or not. Doesn't matter what I think. But sometimes with WTC points at stake, you tend to play on wickets that produce results," Dravid told the reporters ahead of Ahmedabad Test which will decide whether India make it to World Test Championship (WTC) final straightaway or depend on the result of two-Test series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
Dravid also pointed out that in the last few years home teams have produced pitches wickets that have been challenging than before.
"It can happen, not only in India but across the world if you see, sometimes it is difficult to get that balance perfectly right for everyone and that can happen not only here but in other places as well," the 50-year-old said.
Dravid also recalled the Test match in 2021 against New Zealand that led to spin-friendly pitches in recent past.
"There is a huge premium on results and if you draw a game like we did in Kanpur versus New Zealand, that sets you back in a home game. When you have 12 for a win and 4 for draw, you want to get a win ahead of a draw," he stated.
Dravid also pointed out that South African tracks did not offer much help to spinners.
"We have played on some challenging wickets when we go overseas also. Played in South Africa recently (2022), where spinners were completely taken out of the game," he asserted.
"And everyone wants to produce wickets where eventually one wants results. You will probably prepare wickets where the ball holds a bit more sway over the bat and that's necessary and part of the game," Dravid was unapologetic about the advantage to spinners.
Dravid is not worried about the fact that only one of the top-order batters has scored a century in the series. He feels that the parameter to define a good performance on tough wickets needs to be looked at with a different viewpoint.
"You need to be realistic as to what is a good performance on these challenging wickets, not only here but if you look at last three to four years, wickets have generally got challenging everywhere.
"So you need to be realistic what the bench-marks are now, what standards are on these kinds of surfaces just one good performance can change the game. We saw that with Rohit's performance (in Nagpur) and we have seen that.”
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