On pitches where scoring runs is more a matter of luck than skills, it’s unfair to be overtly critical of batters

The three pitches before the ongoing Ahmedabad Test, now famous for the golden chariot in which Prime Ministers of India and Australia took a spin around the ground on the first morning, were the real spinners’ paradise. Supporters of fair pitches diss them by calling them ‘rank turners’ (or worse ‘snake pits’), where the ball starts to turn viciously in the first 30 minutes of the first morning, even before the pacers are properly warmed up and spinners are mentally prepared to come in to bowl.