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'We must know what we should buy': Ravichandran Ashwin's explosive take on pitch criticism

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Feb 27, 2021, 07:19 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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"The bowler wins the game, the batsmen need to bat well to score runs. Who defines what a good surface is? Seam on the first day, then bat well in the next couple of days and spin on the last two days, come on, who makes these rules?"

Ravichandran Ashwin on Saturday reacted to pitch criticism after India's 10-wicket win over England and said that these talks are getting out of hand. According to Indian spinner, one should talk about the quality of play rather than the pitch.

"I think I have said that in the past as well, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I am not here to say that your opinion is right and it is wrong. The fact remains that the talk about the surface is getting out of hand. Why would you talk about the surface and sell that to us time and time again? Is there any instance where the pitch has been talked about this much when we have played games in other countries," said Ashwin while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference on Saturday.

"I somehow find it funny that when they speak about the surface, it immediately gets quoted all over in our press and this is the issue here. There have been instances, we have been to New Zealand, where both the Tests got over in a total of five days. There is a video doing the rounds where Virat Kohli is talking in South Africa and he says I am not here to talk about the pitch. That is how we have been taught to play cricket, that's why I say let them sell thoughts, buying is our choice," he added.

Ashwin further said: "The bowler wins the game, the batsmen need to bat well to score runs. Who defines what a good surface is? Seam on the first day, then bat well in the next couple of days and spin on the last two days, come on, who makes these rules? We need to get over it and if you are asking whether the pitch in the third Test was a good surface, I do not see any players of England coming out and complaining. You should be hoping for a good cricket match, not the surface."

Ravichandran Ashwin, who recently got 400 Test wickets, explained his cryptic tweet that read: "Products are sold using various marketing strategies and that’s an accepted practice! We now live in an era where ideas are also being sold to us and it’s a classic example of “outbound marketing”, however, I would like to add that buying ideas being sold to us is like telling us."

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Ashwin explained his tweet by saying: "I went through my timeline, I saw many retweets and quote tweets, I don't understand if they didn't get it what they were retweeting it about. It is very simple, I have always wanted to talk about it at one stage. With respect to thoughts being put across and planted, I find it extremely hilarious. You have a thought process and you want everybody to follow, with thoughts, what happens is you condition people to believe in a certain manner.

"You watch a match, India wins the game, at most everyone is saying I am happy India won the game. You don't want people going back home and saying India is not winning the game, the pitch is winning the game. I do not want people to do that. I think it's important that people sell things, but we must know what we should buy," he added.