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After India skipper Hardik Pandya expressed his disappointment at the pitch at Lucknow's Ekana Cricket Stadium, where the second T20I was played, the star batter Suryakumar Yadav opined that both sides should rather take it on as a challenge and the wicket shouldn't matter a lot.
India will take on New Zealand in the final and third match of the T20I series on Wednesday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. India clinched the second T20I with just one ball to spare while chasing a small target of 100 runs. Following his side's hard-fought six-wicket win over New Zealand in the second T20I, India skipper said that the game went down to the wire and the surface was a "shocker of a wicket", which is not suitable for the shorter format. Pandya wasn't the only one taken aback by the sharp turns the two pitches offered, Mitchell Santner of New Zealand too was. In the match, spinners bowled around 30 overs in two innings, without conceding a single six. "To be honest, it was a shocker of a wicket. Both the games we have played so far. I do not mind difficult wickets. I am all up for that, but these two wickets are not made for T20. Somewhere down the line the curators or the grounds that we are going to play in should make sure they prepare the pitches earlier," said Pandya in a post-match presentation. "I feel it doesn't matter what soil you play on. These are the things which aren't in your control and we did whatever we could have done in the last game. We had to apply and adapt to whatever we got on that ground and just move on with the situation," Surya said in a pre-match press conference. Suryakumar said that the Indian batters had to make up with whatever was on the pitch because they had no control over it. "But it was an exciting game. No matter what the condition or the format is, be it T20 or ODI, if both teams are trying to have a good competition, the wicket shouldn't matter a lot. You go out there, have a challenge, accept it and move on," he added. "We (Hardik and I) had a chat later on, and it was like, whatever we got in future we will go with it. It's completely fine," Suryakumar said. Speaking about the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia and being a part of the squad for the very first time, Surya said, "Everyone wants to play Test cricket and whenever you start playing cricket, you have to start in the domestic league in red ball cricket only. I am excited and everyone knows how exciting the upcoming series will be." (ANI)
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