"If pitches are not proper, how..." - Aakash Chopra launches attack on ICC ahead of T20 World Cup final

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has criticized the Trinidad pitch where the first semi-final between South Africa and Afghanistan was played. 

Afghanistan were bowled out for a mere 56 and South Africa won the match by 9 wickets. Seven Afghan batters scored in single digits with three other batters scoring ducks. The way the pitch played out in the semi-final definitely poses a lot of questions. 

In his latest video on his YouTube channel, Chopra said that the pitch at the Brian Lara Academy in Trinidad was responsible for Afghanistan's defeat despite the South African pace attack being a decent one. 

"If it's a semi-final game and a team gets out for 56, it means there was something in the pitch, whether it was Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje or Tabraiz Shamsi. Only one person reached double figures, that was Azmatullah Omarzai, and you couldn't have fought with 56. The ball was moving, going fast, left-right and up-down. What sort of tournament is this?" Aakash Chopra said.

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Chopra also spoke about the Guyana pitch saying that there was too much turn on offer. He said that while it is understandable for the New York pitches to be under-prepared as they are drop-in pitches, the pitches in the Caribbean should have been better. 

"If the pitches are not proper, how can cricket be good? The pitch was not good in New York. It's still okay as it was a drop-in and a new pitch. The ball was turning so much in Guyana, where teams were getting out for 75, and here the team was bowled out for 103," Chopra elaborated.

Further criticizing the Trinidad track, he termed the pitch as a "third-class" track. 

Trinidad Was A Third-Class Track: Aakash Chopra

"Everyone said the New York pitch is bad. Did anyone see the Tarouba pitch? It's seriously a third-class pitch and I had tweeted this on the 14th that you are focussing on New York and someone should look there as well. Some balls were going along the pitch and some were hitting the head. What are you doing? That's why we said Afghanistan had very little chance when we were previewing that game because facing fast bowling was going to be very difficult on this pitch and the fast bowlers who have height would destroy you, and that's exactly how it happened," Chopra explained.

He concluded by speaking about the timings of the two semi-finals. Chopra pointed out that the first semi-final started at 6 am IST while the second continued till 1.30 am IST. Unfortunately, rain delayed the start of the second semi-final and there was also another rain break in the Indian innings just after the powerplay. 

Meanwhile, this is South Africa's first World Cup semi-final across ICC events. They have remained unbeaten in eight games so far. For India, this is the third T20 World Cup final. They last played the T20 World Cup final against Sri Lanka in 2014. Between the Champions Trophy victory in 2013 and their previous defeat in the ICC World Cup 2023 final, Team India lost around 10 ICC semi-final or final matches. This is their chance to end their title drought. 

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