Joe Root laments lack of fast bowler impact in Third Test defeat by India and says ICC must decide on pitches

Joe Root declined to overtly criticise the “very challenging and difficult” Ahmedabad pitch on which England were soundly beaten by India in just two days of the Third Test, but admitted that his own maiden Test five-wicket haul showed how skewed the surface was towards spin bowling.

The Test was the shortest since 1935 and just the 22nd in history to finish inside two days. Sir Alastair Cook, England’s leading Test run scorer, described batting on the pitch as “nigh-on impossible”, with spinners taking 28 of the 30 wickets.

On a 17-wicket second day, Root’s off-spin picked up five for eight as England ran through the last seven wickets of India’s first innings for 31, before being bowled out for 81. India knocked off the 49 required for victory with ease.

Root admitted, though, that his five-fer “sort of sums up the wicket and [showed that it] gives a fair amount of spin”. Rather than the pitch, Root blamed England’s inability to capitalise on being 74 for two shortly before lunch on day one, and admitted he was “kicking himself” for his misjudgement of Ravichandran Ashwin’s length that sparked the collapse. He felt 250 would have been a par score and described his team as “bitterly disappointed”.

Root said it was the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) responsibility to grade pitches, but expressed regret that fast bowlers were passengers in the game (perhaps because he picked four of them).

“I think that this surface is a very challenging one, a very difficult one to play on,” he said. “It’s not for players to decide if it’s fit for purpose. That’s up to the ICC. As players we have to try to counter it as best we can.

“As a player all you can do is play what’s in front of you. There’s always going to be slight home advantage but it is a shame when you have got so many fantastic players that can’t have an input into a Test match.

"You look at Ishant [Sharma] playing his 100th game, he’s bowled a minimal amount of overs. Someone like Jasprit Bumrah, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer, Jimmy Anderson, you’re look at some of the best bowlers int he world. And we’re not getting a chance to see them play. The decision is there for the ICC to make but as players you want to compete against the best in whatever conditions they are.

“As I mentioned before the game, there always has to be an element of home advantage, because that is part of the beauty of Test cricket. You go around the world playing in all these wonderful places and you have to learn to develop your game, to find different ways.

“If you are going to be consistently good, you have to find ways of playing on a wicket that spins, that is not quite as good for seamers. If you are going to be an all-round good squad of players, you have to be able to handle it. It’s just how extreme you’re willing to let the wickets be.”

Root believes that the pink ball contributed to the low scoring.

“It is frustrating and something we have to learn from – we have to get better and we have to keep finding a way to score runs on surfaces like that when it is very challenging,” he said.

"You could see that from the scores throughout the whole game – even guys that are more used to playing on turning wickets.

“I honestly think the ball was a big factor in this wicket. The fact the plastic coating, the hardness of the seam compared to the red SG meant it almost gathered pace off the wicket. If it hit the shiny side and didn’t hit the seam it almost gathered – a lot of those wickets on both sides, the LBW and bowleds were due to being done for pace beaten on the inside.”

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