'It's not as if the ball was....' - Sunil Gavaskar and Kevin Pietersen engage in debate over Hyderabad's pitch in India vs England 1st Test match

Former batters, Sunil Gavaskar and Kevin Pietersen engage in a fierce debate over the pitch in Hyderabad in the commentary box during the 1st Test match between India and England. As the pitches in India are expected to be turning tracks, England was well aware of this before coming to India. However, this didn't seem to settle well with the legendary English batter, Pietersen. As the ball started turning and spinning from day 1, Pietersen didn't like it. During the commentary, he said the pitches should not turn the way they are from the first day itself. 

At the last session of day 2, Pietersen said, "Look at the way Jadeja's first two deliveries turned. That's Day 1 of a Test match. The ball shouldn't be turning that much." 

Countering him, Gavaskar said, "It's not as if the ball was spinning and bouncing, look at the dismissals. Crawly caught at mid-on, Root out sweeping. All the other batters... the technique was not good. It wasn't turning and bouncing that much. When you play Test cricket and are coming to India, you have to expect the ball to turn from Day 1. You can't expect the ball to go straight through."

Gavaskar gave clear examples of how the England batters did not play good Test cricket and gave away their wicket and the pitch can't be blamed for this. It was not the pitch's fault that the batters chose the wrong shots to get dismissed. Moreover, the debate ended with laughter as both of them agreed that having neutral pitches is not always possible. 

India vs England Test match takes a solid turn

After a long time, a Test match in India continues to the fourth day. The Test match between India and England has seen everything so far, starting from the visitors batting collapse in the first inning to giving 231 runs target to the host. As Ollie Pope was batting, the bowlers were clueless about dismissing him and hence, he went on to score 196 runs. However, due to a wrong shot selection, Bumrah got his wicket at the end of session 1. 

As India has the target of 231 runs to win the first Test match, the visitors will be looking forward to dismissing the team and taking a series lead of 1-0. If India gets off to a good start, it will be difficult for the bowlers to bowl out the team. As the game proceeded to the second day, nobody had thought that the match would turn in this manner. Moreover, it will be interesting to see the match results and whether the match gets carried forward to the last day or not.