“You’re playing within the Indian map as home, but is not home” - Ravi Ashwin calls for permanent Test centres after India’s 2-0 series win over WI

Former Indian spinner and analyst Ravi Ashwin has urged the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to come up with proper Test centres with the best pitches whenever India plays Tests at home. 

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Speaking on his YouTube channel, for the betterment of the longest format of the game in India, Ashwin has echoed former Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s statement of having proper Test venues for the team to get used to conditions. 

“Test centres is not about crowds alone. It is also about the familiarity with conditions. If we are playing a Test in Guwahati or Ranchi, I am not against these venues as a possibility. But the problem in India is that every surface has a different identity. There is literally no bounce in the Eastern part of the country. It becomes a very ordinary Test match pitch then,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

“Make sure whichever Test centre you decide has the best pitches. Some venues are better than others only because the pitches are better and the team is used to the conditions. That is home advantage. Otherwise the only point is you are playing within that Indian map as home, but is not home,” he added.

Notably, India is set to lock horns with South Africa in a two-match Test series in Kolkata and Guwahati in November. Ashwin asserted that Guwahati as a Test match centre isn’t a proper idea, as none of the Indian Test cricketers have played a first-class game in Guwahati. 

“Eden Gardens, Guwahati – playing against South Africa there, should there be standard Test centres? Virat said years ago they must be fixed. I personally think it’s about time, why did we make Test centres? So more cricketers could emerge, and their associations would get more funding. But Guwahati as a Test match is not a home game for either team, and I don’t think anyone in the Indian team has played a first-class game in Guwahati,” he observed. 

For the unversed, in 2019, the former Indian captain, Virat Kohli, had reckoned that India should have only five Test centres, adding that the opposition teams should be aware of the kind of pitches and crowds they would expect when they tour India.

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“We’ve been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion, we should have five Test centres, period. I mean, I agree [with] state associations and rotation and giving games and all that, that is fine for T20 and one-day cricket, but Test cricket, teams coming to India should know, ‘we’re going to play at these five centres, these are the pitches we’re going to expect, these are the kind of people that will come to watch, crowds’,” Kohli had said in 2019.

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