The Indian cricket team may have lost the 3-match ODI series to Australia by 1-2 but it managed to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the consecutive fourth time as it defeated Australia in the 4-match test series by 2-1.
Before the start of the series, there were many former Australian cricketers who were of the opinion that Pat Cummins-led side was fully capable of defeating the Indian team and winning its first series in India in the last 19 years but that didn’t happen as India defeated the visitors in the first two test matches. The Australian media houses and some former Aussie cricketers unnecessarily made an issue of the Indian pitches as obviously these pitches were spin friendly and India was playing as per its strength.
However, the Aussies made a great comeback in the series as they defeated India in the third test match which was played at Holkar Stadium, Indore. The BCCI and the team management got heavily slammed because of the pitch as 30 wickets fell on the first two days of the game and the match ended in 7 sessions.
The ICC match referee Chris Broad termed the pitch as “poor” and in his assessment, he wrote that the pitch was very dry, helped the spinners from the beginning and didn’t provide a balance between the bat and the ball.
The BCCI made an appeal against this decision and the ICC panel which comprised of Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager – Cricket, and Roger Harper, ICC Men’s Cricket Committee Member viewed many video clips and has changed the verdict from poor to below average and the three demerit points which were given to the pitch have now reduced to one.
As ICC changed its verdict, the Aussie media didn’t like the decision and called it ridiculous. Here is what Fox Cricket tweeted, “India dished up a truly terrible pitch for the third Test against Australia, but they’ve managed to get the pitch rating upgraded from ‘poor’ after an appeal!” with a laughing emoji.
India dished up a truly terrible pitch for the third Test against Australia, but they've managed to get the pitch rating upgraded from 'poor' after an appeal! 😂
https://t.co/28WQGNoE2w— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) March 27, 2023
This irked the Indian online users and they reacted in a brutal manner by reminding the media house of Australia’s defeat in the BGT 2023.
Other than Twitterati, the Australian head coach Darren Lehman also reacted on this matter:
😂😂😂
— Darren Lehmann (@darren_lehmann) March 27, 2023
Here are some other reactions:
See the problem is not about a pitch rating getting reversed, it’s more about how come it was done by India ! Laugh all you want but the fact is Australia has lost the last 4 BGT trophies and lost 1 of the greatest stacked in favour of them at home (2021) to a bunch of kids. So…
— Venkatesh Agarwal (@impressions_lif) March 27, 2023
Series is completed but but Australians are still crying 😭😭…back to back bgt losses hurt them mentally 🤣🤣
— Tarun Kaushik (@TarunKaushik396) March 27, 2023
Just like England.. pic.twitter.com/PA7F997fSN
— TheArcticLad (@ParnishPaul) March 27, 2023
— BroBroBrooo (@Shubham_Tidke_) March 27, 2023
India beat you last 4 bgt . I can understand your pain 😃
— SINGH (@jsandhu_j) March 28, 2023
Ha I can understand ur Australian😂(always finds excuses)
— ROOPESH_ roobe (@Roopesh__Kumar) March 27, 2023
The optics of this don't look good considering the ICC has a reputation for giving India favours (so much so that I'll sometimes say that ICC stands for Indian Cricket Council) but there is a valid case here given that Indore was called up at short notice.
— Dean Rosolen (@PalZer0) March 27, 2023
Though the Australian media house is crying over the change of judgement in regard to the Indore pitch, a win in this test match ensured Australia’s entry in the finals of the World Test Championship 2021-23 and India managed to secure its berth in the WTC finals because of New Zealand which whitewashed the 2-match test series against Sri Lanka.
Why do Aussies cry so much?