Given the fact that the Pune Test ended inside three days following which match referee Chris Broad termed the pitch ‘poor’ a lot of heat has been generated on the nature of the wicket. It quite, naturally, puts the Bengaluru turf in perspective but traditionally, the wicket here has never been diabolical. Vijay’s take on the Pune wicket, while calling it ‘challenging’ was, albeit different.
On the Pune pitch:
“I go into a match with an open mindset and if the wicket does something extra then I try to adapt to it. I don’t think it was a poor wicket. It was a much more challenging wicket from ball one. As cricketers we need that thing of playing in such wickets than playing in just flat tracks or seaming wickets. It tests your ability and I take it that way. It actually is a good thing for me personally to play in such tracks to test your abilities and overall it was a good game of cricket. We should have done better in the first innings and that match could have gone longer but it didn’t happen.
On Team bonding (the Indian team went on a trek after the first Test defeat):
“It gets you closer as a team. We have been on the road for a while now so obviously such kind of activities would help any team. We had a couple of days break as we finished the match early (sic) so we planned that we can go trekking. We wanted to get out of the normal things we do and just go out there and get some fresh air. So yes, it was fun.
