India vs England 2021: This Pitch Is Unacceptable - Mark Waugh Voices His Opinion On Chepauk Track

Former Australia batsman, Mark Waugh has aired his opinion regarding the pitch in the ongoing Chennai Test between India and England and is clear on which side of the debate he is on.

Mark Waugh termed the pitch being used or prepared as ‘unacceptable’ as 15 wickets fell on Day 2 and 217 runs were scored. Waugh’s assessment comes in as a criticism to the pitch which offered turn and bounce for the spinners from Day 1.

On a day where Ravichandran Ashwin bagged his 29th five-wicket haul as England were bundled out for 134, the 55-year-old opines that such heavy bowling-friendly – or rather as Waugh intents ‘spin-friendly’ – tracks aren’t best suited for Test cricket.

“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,” Mark Waugh tweeted.

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.

— Mark Waugh (@juniorwaugh349) February 14, 2021

Rohit Sharma should have been out twice: Mark Waugh

‘Junior’ also believes that Rohit Sharma should have been given out twice in the match but wasn’t. This comment by Waugh was in response to a user who pointed out that Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara batted well at the end of the day on the same pitch.

The former batsman then talked about a couple of controversial decisions by the umpires which didn’t go England’s way and went in favour of the Indian opener.

One was when Rohit was given not out to a stumping appeal; while the third umpire seems to have given the benefit of doubt to the batsman for inconclusive evidence, some people believed that Rohit didn’t have any part of his foot inside the line.

The second controversial incident happened in India’s second innings – when England reviewed an lbw decision against the opener, the third umpire deemed it to be not out as the ball on the impact with Rohit Sharma‘s pad was outside the off-stump.

But many feel that the right-hander was offering no shot – in which case the impact outside off-stump shouldn’t have mattered – and was just placing his bat behind his front pad. The debate has sparked up and people have their takes on the decisions, so has Mark Waugh.

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.

— Mark Waugh (@juniorwaugh349) February 14, 2021

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