Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne has conceded the pitch for the first Test in Brisbane was not fit for a Test match after the two-day demolition of South Africa in Brisbane.
Even Labuschagne, who was coming off more than 500 runs in two Tests against the West Indies, struggled at the Gabba where 34 wickets fell inside two days play as the Aussies romped to victory on a green wicket nearly the same colour as the outfield.
South African skipper Dean Elgar asked the umpires whether the pitch was safe during the game and continued that harsh criticism post-match.
While Australian captain Pat Cummins thought the wicket was “fine”, Labuschagne admitted it was “not ideal” for a Test match
“I think everyone understands that this is not what we want, that’s not the ideal scenario,” he told SEN.
“We love the pace of the wicket, we love the bounce, we love two fast bowling attacks going at it, but if we’re going to finish in under two days it’s obviously not ideal for Test cricket.
“But the reality is we’ve played on probably two of those in the last two years.”
Steve Smith, who made 36 in the first innings but only six in the second as Australia lost 4-24 before getting over the line, said it was “probably the most challenging wicket I’ve seen in Australia” after the game.
“It was like there were different areas of moisture on the wicket, so some balls were taking divots and going slow off the wicket, others were hitting harder parts of the wicket and zinging through,” Smith told cricket.com.au.
“So once those soft bits are hit, it creates some divots as well.
“You would’ve seen a lot of the balls that hit the divots and either shot low or took off, so as a batter it’s very difficult to play against.”
There have on only been 21 Tests since 1877 that have produced a result inside and Elgar was fuming post-match with the state of the pitch after his side was rolled for just 99 in its second innings.
“Thirty-four wickets in two days – pretty one-sided affair, I would say,” he said.
“How it started to play with some seriously steep bounce with the old ball, you are kind of on a hiding to none as a batting unit.
“If you think about it, only two or maybe three batters, applied themselves half-decently and scored runs.
“I don’t think it was a very good Test wicket, no.”
Labuschagne,said the quality of bowling attacks on both sides demanded a better wicket.
“It felt a bit like a Shield game,” he said.
“We’ve seen a fair few wickets like that (at the Gabba), but obviously you don’t have two sides with bowling attacks of four or five guys bowling over 150(km/h), that’s probably the difference.
“Test cricket is an endurance battle. Can the batter outlast the bowler? It’s a strategical game and obviously when you play on a wicket like this it brings the match so close together.
“It becomes a little bit of a lottery about who gets the upper hand on a wicket like that.
“With such a good bowling attack, they sacrificed a little bit on their batting because they play the four quicks and a spinner. That played into our advantage this game because you probably didn’t need five bowlers on a wicket like that.”
