Virat Kohli is looking after the groundsmen': Andrew Strauss disagrees with India captain on Ahmedabad pitch

After Alastair Cook disagreed with India captain Virat Kohli’s assessment of the Ahmedabad pitch for the India vs England day-night Test match, another England captain Andrew Strauss echoed his views.
Strauss said Kohli was probably looking after the groundsmen of the Narendra Modi Stadium by saying that the pitch was a good one.

“To say the pitch has no fault to play, I totally agree with Cooky. Kohli's looking after the groundsmen there to a certain degree," Strauss told Channel 4 as reported by ESPNCricinfo.

The Test match ended inside two days with India winning it with 10 wickets to take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-match series. The result also knocked England out of the World Test Championship final race.

Strauss gave England captain Joe Root’s example to state how difficult the pitch was to bat.

"Look at Joe Root for a moment. We know he is a great player of spin," Strauss said. "He is in great form as well. What did he get - 19 today? Might have been out two or three times en route to getting that score. And by the way, that's day two of a Test match."

The ball was coming on nicely yesterday and the odd ball was turning. The batting was below-par from both sides. It was bizarre that out of 30 wickets, 21 was to straight balls. It was down to lapse of concentration or playing for turn and beating on the inside. Test cricket is all about it - this is a classic example of batsmen not applying themselves enough,” Kohli had said about the Ahmedabad pitch.

Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar too agreed with Strauss and Cook.

"The thing is how quickly it happened, so I've got to agree with you that perhaps not a second-day pitch," Agarkar said. "Chennai (second Test) was a little bit different. It [Ahmedabad] was dry, there is no two ways about it. Whether it is a fair contest or not? I mean, look, it is a different sort of a challenge, isn't it? Again, it is not easy. It is difficult to bat on this patch. But is it a 112 and 145 pitch? Not in my opinion.”.