Even Indians are questioning if curators have gone too far in producing spin-friendly pitches against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series.
Fourteen wickets tumbled on day one of the third Test in Delhi, with all but one of them, a run-out, falling to spin.
But the visitors were the team to come out on top after a chaotic opening day, going to stumps at 4-156, a lead of 47.
After captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat, India were rolled for 109 on a minefield, where the ball spun sharp and kept low.
Nathan Lyon ripped a fierce, low bouncing offbreak into the stumps of India veteran Cheteshwar Pujara to set in motion an extraordinary collapse.
India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour was pressed hard by local media about the state of the Indore pitch.
“First day of a Test match, the pitch did a lot more than we expected,” Rathour said.
“But to be fair on the curators also, I think they hardly got time to prepare this wicket.
“It was pretty late that it was decided that the game was shifted from Dharamshala to this venue, so I don’t think they got enough time to really prepare the wicket.
“As a team we want to play on turning tracks, this is what our strength is as a team.
“So it is challenging, you need to bat really well to score runs.”
Former Australia batter Mark Waugh described the first day as “mayhem”.
“The pitch was not up to Test standard, I think that’s a fair thing to say,” Waugh said on commentary.
“Balls going through the top in the first 20 minutes of a Test match, that’s not good enough.”
Waugh’s former Australia Matthew Hayden said the pitch should not have favoured spin as much as it did.
“It shouldn’t be a spin bowler’s paradise necessarily, it shouldn’t be keeping low and turning a mile on day one,” Hayden said on commentary.
“You’re allowed to have a four or five-day Test match, otherwise just call it as it is, we’ll just play three-dayers.”
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