Mike Gatting, the former England captain, praised Rohit Sharma for his 161-run knock in the second Test at Chennai. Rohit’s 161 helped India put up a good total on Day One of the second Test, and the hosts then dominated the Test on a difficult wicket. India were trailing 0-1 in the series and have now bounced back in the series with a 317-run win in Chennai.

“I liked the way he presented the full face of the bat, and he was positive. He hit the bad ball when required. Once Rohit and India had batted for the best part of a day and a bit, it really was going to be a real test for the English batsmen, especially with the quality of Ashwin and of course you brought Axar Patel in, who’s a different left-arm spinner to Nadeem, certainly a more round-arm slingy and faster type of bowler, and Kuldeep Yadav as well bowling his chinaman,” Gatting said in an interview with the YouTube Channel Niche Sports.

Gatting also spoke about the pitch and said, “I think for a Test match to finish in such a short period of time is not really what you want to see. The first Test match – it was a goodish pitch – you could bat on it if you had some skill in the first innings. You would expect some turning pitches, especially with the spinners that they have. I would like to see, because you have the weather in India, to be able to produce wickets where you can just bat on for the first or second day and then it should start turning – that to me is an ideal pitch.” IND vs ENG Test Series 2021: Indian Players Stuck in Bio-Bubble As England Players Get Time Off.

At the same time, Gatting said that it was difficult for the groundsman to prepare a pitch for the second Test. He said, “It was difficult for the groundsman because when you are preparing two Test wickets and then you cant touch the second one there for it’s been in the sun for I can only assume certainly five days of the first Test match and a couple of days before that because it has to be prepared and then left. So you can’t blame the groundsman. Yes, we expected it to be drier. It was just disappointing that it got so dry that it started to turn on Day One Like a like a third Day Pitch. That’s what Test cricket is about. You’ll have to learn to play on spinning pitches.”

Gatting also praised Joe Root’s attitude at the end of the game. “I just think that you should expect some home bias in pitches, and you should have to be able to play on them. This one I think was slightly more difficult than most. I thought Joe Root was very good after the match. He didn’t blame the pitch. He said we didn’t play well, and we didn’t bowl as well. That was a very good way to treat this,” Gatting said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 19, 2021 09:42 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).