Dravid disagrees with pitch rating

DHARAMSALA: The ICC’s average rating given to two pitches involving India matches hasn’t gone down well with head coach Rahul Dravid, who “respectfully disagreed” with the world body on Saturday, saying an ODI match is not just about batters and their pyrotechnics.

The pitches used for India’s match against Pakistan in Ahmedabad on October 14 and its clash against Australia in Chennai on October 8 received ‘average’ rating from the ICC.

Rest of the pitches have been rated as ‘good’ or ‘very good’. “I will respectfully disagree with the average rating given for those two wickets. I think they were good wickets. If you only want to see 350 (run) games and rate only those wickets as good, then I disagree with that. I think, you have to see different skills on display as well,” Dravid said.

“It’s not about if we wanted to see only 4s and 6s being hit, then we have T20 wickets as well, where, honestly, in Delhi or in Pune, probably 350-plus wickets as well. Only those are good wickets, then why are the bowlers here? Why have spinners at all, for that matter?” Dravid said an ODI game is all about showing different skills of players and not just hitting.

“I disagree with that (just hitting) because I think we should see all skills on display, the ability to rotate strike through the middle. See the quality of watching (Ravindra) Jadeja bowl or a (Mitchell) Santner bowl or a (Adam) Zampa bowl or watching Kane Williamson rotate the strike through the middle, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul the way they batted against Australia. Those are skills as well. Those also need to come out and be shown and be displayed,” he said.