India tour of Australia: MS Dhoni & Co fume at ‘uneven’ practice pitch

“It was quite late and we could only give maybe 5-10 minutes’ notice to Virat that he would go in to bat. We thought he (Dhawan) got a blow but he was good enough to bat, but he was not. There was miscommunication,” he revealed.

As it turned out, that unrest soon cascaded into a dramatic collapse. And the Gabba watched in bewilderment as Virat Kohli, who had been hit on the right forearm during practice, made his way to the middle with Pujara. He lasted all of 11 deliveries. The rest didn’t hang around for too long either. What the team required then to calm down their nerves was a partnership, felt Dhoni. But that didn’t happened till Dhawan finally arrived at the fall of the fifth wicket.

The Indian management had by then made it a point to make an announcement that the opener would be batting despite battling pain.

That he hadn’t even gotten time to get his wrist x-rayed due to the sudden fall of wickets.

This after they had released an official statement, which stressed on the visitors being denied fresh practice wickets and instead forced to train on uneven worn-out pitches.

Speaking to The Indian Express, veteran Gabba curator Kevin Mitchell Jr, however, said they had only followed routine procedure, and that even the Australian team had practised on the same wickets. “Yes, they did ask for a change of wickets but I told them that the fresh ones are being prepared for future training sessions. To boot, the practice wickets were similar to the ones in the middle,” he said. “No visiting team has complained about our practice pitches before. And it’s disappointing that they would turn this into an issue.”

No veg food for Indians

Brisbane: It has emerged that on day three of the match, proper vegetarian fare was not provided at lunch for the Indian team and two players, Ishant Sharma and Suresh Raina, had to step outside the stadium premises to procure proper vegetarian food for themselves, accompanied by ICC’s ACSU personnel and team director Ravi Shastri.

However on their return, they were told that food or beverages can’t be brought inside the stadium. The two players consumed their food sitting outside and then returned to the dressing room. While Raina isn’t playing in this match, Ishant is and he bowled for India on the third day. (PTI)