Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra slammed the playing conditions for the historic one-off T20I between India and Japan at the Sano International Cricket Stadium, on Tuesday. The pitch was slow and low, and there was a lot of turn on offer as batters from both teams struggled to get going in truncated match of five overs per innings.
India could only manage 32 runs after electing to bat first and Japan was not far away from pulling off one of the most memorable upsets of all time in cricketing history. Furthermore, the outfield was on the slow side because of rain.
“As far as the pitch is concerned, it is a big challenge. Because the way it played and the match happened, started quickly and ended quickly, it almost went like a blur. But matches cannot be played on these types of pitches if you want to take international cricket to remote areas. It has to be played on better surfaces. It is not raining, but the ground is not drying up because you don’t have a super sopper or the capacity to cover it. If you are playing an international match here, then it is just not good enough. This is a challenge that everyone will have to sort out,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
Indian captain Shreyas Iyer also admitted it was a challenging track to bat on after he top-scored with 16 runs.
“Well, certainly turning square. Honestly speaking, it was a very difficult wicket to bat on. We saw the openers as well, who are used to scoring runs consistently, not able to gauge the pace of the spin, and I decided when I got in that it’s important that I need to take singles and doubles and rotate the strike as much as possible,” he said after winning the player of the match for his crucial cameo.
Chopra admitted that India was almost done at one stage as Japan was in a winning position.
“Genuinely, at one stage, you thought that we’re done. We were thinking fun and frolic, we’ll just laugh and giggle and get through it. The Indian team also seemed to have similar intentions and attitude, which is understandable and acceptable. Not a huge fan of a 5-over game, but under the circumstances, it was okay,” Aakash Chopra added.
India’s T20I team will next play in the Asian Games.
