It's only 22 yards: India coach Anil Kumble put the pitch into perspective ahead of Bengaluru Test

“Can we move on (from all the pitch questions)? It’s only 22 yards, it can’t be very different. We didn’t adapt well, we lost.”

In the face of a virtual barrage of questions on the pitch, India’s head coach Anil Kumble didn’t lose his cool but he couldn’t hide the irritation. However, given that he was addressing the media for the first time since the defeat against Australia at Pune, such questions were to be expected.

The ICC has labelled the Pune pitch ‘poor’ and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has to respond with an explanation of what went wrong within the next 10 days. The answers won’t be straight-forward.

BCCI sources have blamed the MCA, the MCA has blamed some ‘senior BCCI officials’ and former BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke is even demanding a CBI enquiry. Some might say that Shirke’s demand is ridiculous and they won’t be wrong but still such demands have meant that everyone has continued to focus on the pitch — the one that we saw in Pune and the one that we will see in Bengaluru.

Will it be flat? Will it have grass? Will it be good for batting? Will it turn? The questions seemed endless.

Kumble, who played his all his cricket for Karnataka, started off at his sarcastic best: “I don’t know much about the Chinnaswamy wicket.” The statement quickly gave way to laughter but the point was not lost on the coach.

He also brushed aside any notions of what an “ideal wicket” would look like, “I have never looked at the pitch, as a player, coach or as a captain. There was a lot of talk about me performing only on certain wickets. It doesn’t bother me now,” Kumble said. “I am sure it will be a good wicket.”

Indeed, the sheer number of questions about the pitch perplexed him, “questions about the pitch were never asked in the press conferences of the last nine Tests.”

Let’s move on

India’s highest Test wicket-taker urged his team to put the Pune loss behind them, “What has happened in Pune is done and dusted,” he said. “We didn’t play really well, didn’t adapt to the conditions. Every game we need to adapt to what comes our way. We don’t need to worry about the Pune loss. Really looking to forward to this game to get back to winning ways. It was a team failure and we cannot point fingers at anyone.”

“I don’t want to look back. One of those games where things didn’t go our way. We have to move on. As coach, I have to look ahead,” he further added.

India had two inexplicable collapses in Pune and even slumped to an alarming 11/7 in the first innings, “Australia are a quality side. Don’t think we played to our potential in Pune. We want to play to our potential in this match. Partnerships as batting unit, bowling unit — we didn’t tick those boxes. We want to tick those boxes to win the Test match,” Kumble said.

India were expected to dismiss the Aussies cheaply, having won eight of the last nine Tests, and unbeaten in 20, “You can’t keep winning every game. It has to come to an end. A 20-game winning streak in international cricket is quite challenging. This team has been able to do it. This team adapted to different situations but in the last game, we did not and that’s why we lost,” Kumble said.

No question of dropping Rahane

Indeed, the pitch was the same for both sides. One applied itself and the other did not. The conversation, then, finally moved on. This time, the focus was Ajinkya Rahane.

With just one half-century in his last nine Test innings, Rahane has dealt with a fair amount of flak in recent times, especially with triple-centurion Karun Nair waiting in the wings. Kumble, like skipper Virat Kohli, backed the vice-captain to come good, “There’s no question of dropping Ajinkya Rahane. He has scored well and has been extremely successful in the last couple of years. We still haven’t discussed the team composition (for Bengaluru).”

He went on praise the group of players he has had to work with.

“That’s the beauty about this group. Whoever has come in, has done really well. Unfortunate for Karun, he is a class act. But our aim is to win every game,” Kumble said, dropping no hint of India’s team composition for the match in Bengaluru.

Kumble also brushed aside the criticism surrounding his side’s use of the Decision Review System. India lost all four reviews taken while field and managed to overturn only one out of three while batting.

“Don’t think we missed it out on DRS. We did certainly better in DRS than England and Bangladesh. Those calls were really close. Don’t think we need to talk about it now,” said Kumble defended his team.

Still, this isn’t the last Kumble has heard of the pitch. Come match day, one can be sure that the focus will once again change to the pitch. Such, indeed, is the nature of the game.