India vs England: This Chennai pitch is unacceptable at Test match level, says Mark Waugh – Hindustan Times

Former Australia cricketer Mark Waugh weighed in on the criticism of the pitch at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai during the 2nd Test between India and England and said that the surface is not acceptable for a Test match. The 2nd day of the Test between the two teams saw the surface assisting spinners in troubling the batsmen.

While England’s Moeen Ali started the day with a couple of wickets in the 2nd over of the day, India’s R Ashwin emerged as the hero of Day 2, picking up his 29th five-wicket haul.

Also read: Rishabh Pant was compared to MS Dhoni and now to Wriddhiman Saha, give him a break, says R Ashwin

The debutant Axar Patel, too, picked up the prized scalp of England captain Joe Root and finished with figures of 2/40 as England were bowled out for 134. giving India a lead of 195 at the start of the 2nd innings.

While there have been critics pointing out the shortcomings of having a surface such as the one in Chennai, others have pointed out that Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Ben Foakes showed how to bat on this tricky surface.

Giving his views on the same on Twitter, Waugh wrote: “I’m all for a good contest between bat and ball in test match cricket but this pitch in Chennai is unacceptable at test match level.”

“You can’t have the ball going through the top of the surface on day 1 from the main part of the pitch. Ie not from the footmarks,” he added.

When a fan pointed out how Rohit has batted in the 2nd innings, Waugh replied on Twitter: “Rohit is a very fine player and even he should have been out twice. Once missed stumped buy a ball which spun a foot and then LBW padding up as he wasn’t certain how the ball was going to react of the surface.”

Earlier, former England captain Michael Vaughan had also criticised the pitch on Twitter, saying that the pitch is not prepared for a five-day contest.