The wickets in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy have been a fixture in itself drawing unnecessary attention even before the start of the series. Many Australian experts have chastised the BCCI for preparing pitches that are overly spinny. The surfaces have provided plenty of turn, and all of the matches thus far have been one-sided, with all of them ending within three days.
Premature end to Test matches
India defeated Australia in Nagpur and Delhi before the visitors came back to win convincingly in Indore. The pitch in Indore was the most difficult of all, with the ball spinning sharply from ball one.
In the third Test, Rohit Sharma chose to bat, and the Australian spinners ran riot, bowling the hosts out for 109. Australia defeated India by nine wickets, thanks to a strong showing with the bat and a stunning performance by Nathan Lyon in the second innings.
The ICC rated Indore as poor and assessed three demerit points. However, according to the most recent update, the BCCI is dissatisfied with the decision and plans to appeal the ICC's decision.
BCCI upset with ICC's pitch assessment
“We will take stock of the situation and decide,” a BCCI official said. In the ICC press statement, match referee Broad had said, “The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start. The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match.”
BCCI has two weeks to appeal the sanction. If a venue accumulates five demerit points in five years, it will be barred from hosting international matches for a year. If the BCCI decides to file a complaint and obtain a favourable decision, this will not be the first time an ICC sanction is reversed. After filing an appeal, PCB was able to overturn the ICC decision on the Rawalpindi pitch last year. The ICC match referee rated the pitch as below average.
