Last Updated: February 13, 2023, 11:08 IST
Australia great Ian Healy has come down heavily at Nagpur pitch curators after they supposedly watered down the pitch which meant Australia couldn’t practice on the pitch before leaving for New Delhi which will be hosting the third Test.
In fact, Australia skipper Pat Cummins had said that they want to practice on the dustbowl surface in the next two days before flying out but the groundsman had watered down the pitch as soon as the game ended. Australian batters failed to gauge the turn that was on offer and were bowled out twice in two innings as the game ended in just three days.
Speaking on SEN on Monday, former Australia wicketkeeper Healy was left furious as he called the act “pathetic”.
“It’s really embarrassing the scuppering of our plans to get some practice sessions on that Nagpur wicket,” Healy said. “That’s not good, that’s just not good for cricket. The ICC needs to step in here. For them to water the wicket unceremoniously when it was requested for practice is horrible and that has to improve.”
Earlier, Australia coach Andrew McDonald had told SEN that the practice session was not “naughty boy nets” but an a chance for the visitors to adapt to the “extreme” conditions.
“It’s pretty clear isn’t it, their intent with the surfaces they want to play on. We were expecting that coming in so as I said before, we’ve been really clear on what we expected,” he said.
“When we got here we got exactly that. They’re not naughty boy nets today (the planned session). We’ve got a big squad of 17 players so there’s different people on different training programs. There’ll be a couple of players from the game that will come down, so they’ll be seen at training. But it’s certainly not naughty boy nets, it’s just preparing for the next game.”
Meanwhile, Australia called in left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann immediately after the first Test, in place of Mitchell Swepson, who headed home for the birth of his first child.
Get the latest Cricket News here