The International Cricket Council (ICC) has upgraded the pitch rating of Indore’s Holkar Stadium — the venue for the third Test between India and Australia — to ‘below average’ from ‘poor’ following a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appeal.
The ICC also gave the Motera Stadium pitch in Ahmedabad, the venue for the fourth Test, an ‘average’ rating for the slow batting deck where both teams had one completed innings each. The match had ended in a tame draw, with India winning the series 2-1.
At Indore, Australia had defeated India by nine wickets inside three days. The ICC appeal panel reviewed the earlier decision of the match referee Chris Broad and found that there was not enough excessive variable bounce to warrant the ‘poor’ rating.
The pitch, which had initially received three demerit points, will now get only one demerit point.
The ICC match referee, however, gave ‘very good’ rating to the Wankhede Stadium and Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam, pitches, where the first two ODIs between India and Australia were played.