We play to win but not to play for five days, says Kohli on Ahmedabad pitch

Indian skipper Virat Kohli came out all guns blazing when asked about the state of the 22 yard track at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The third Test between India and England ended in just two days with the hosts coming out on top by 10 wickets but the pitch drew a lot of flak in spite of the positive result for Kohli’s side.

There has been widespread criticism about turning tracks since India won the second Test by a massive margin of 317 runs as Indian spinners R Ashwin and Axar Patel have called the shots in the Test series so far.

Kohli made it clear that he doesn’t care about the length of the Test match as long as India is winning the match.

“We play to win and people should be happy that we won and shouldn’t care about how long the match is lasting. You have to look at things objectively. I totally believe that too much noise is being made about spinning tracks,” Kohli said while addressing a virtual press conference ahead of the fourth and final Test against England, which starts on Thursday (March 4).

“We lost to New Zealand inside three days but no one commented how much the ball was moving or the amount of grass on the pitch. We have never criticised the pitch and I don’t know what’s the idea behind continuing this narrative,” the Indian captain added.

England were bowled out for 112 and 81 while India just managed to score 145 in their first innings. Kohli made it clear that the low scores in third Test were because of ‘bizarre batting’ by both sides.

“The result in last Test was down to bizarre batting by both sides if we managed to bat a bit better in the first innings, the Test wouldn’t have been over in two days,” Kohli felt.