Yes there are double-standards but it is also important to understand that a rank-turner is worse than a green pitch due to the following reasons:
1. green and seam-friendly wickets ease out after the first day and a half while a turner gets worse and worse.
2. seam-friendly wickets do not always play out as expected, but the ball will always turn on rank-turners.
3. The margin of error for bowlers in seam-friendly wickets is lower. You still have to pitch in the right areas and bowl right lengths. On the other hand, it is very easy for spinners to take wickets on turners and a batsman will have to play exceptionally well to negate them.
Even an average spinner is going to take 3-4 wickets on a turner but that is not always the case for seamers on green pitches.
4. Toss plays a much bigger role on turners, especially when the home (Asian) teams wins the toss.
They are pretty much guaranteed to win, whereas winning the toss on a seamer pitch is helpful to the foreign sides, but it is less influential than Asian sides winning tosses on turners.
5. It virtually guarantees a win for the Asian team. Yes once in a blue moon it might backfire like the Pune Test in 2017, but the vast majority of times, the Asian side will win because they have better spinners.
On the other hand, the seamer wicket in foreign countries will not create such a massive gulf between the two sides, because that wicket will also play the Asian seamers into play.
No seaming pitch guarantees the demise of an Asian team (unless you are Australia and you are hosting Pakistan) the same way a turning pitch guarantees the demise of a foreign team.
Nevertheless, it is what it is. There is nothing wrong in capitalizing on home advantage. Turners bring their own uniqueness to Test cricket, and it is fine.
docteurmanish said:
Today 06:37
1 - seen green pitches which never improved . Most doctored match pitches end in 3 days so the question does not arise if deterioration .
2 - spin friendly pitches too can have issues. Some will have no bounce amd some will have high bounce . Some will have cracks .
3 - your point on margin of error was actually invalidated by English off spinner dropped for third test. U still have to bowl well , catch well to get wickets . Seamers actually have more margin of error as ball swinging a lot at high pace decreases ur reflex time . U will notice that scores on green pitches will have individual batters not too far away from the mean . On Turner pitches , a laxman or a Rohit or a sehwag or a Hayden / peterson will find a way to score and thrive . Modern drs has slightly decreased the ability but still one can score on spin pitches so long as bounce is true.
4 - toss is unimportant in turners . A turning pitch on all 5 days presents no more or less challenge . It’s actually important to win toss on green pitches as it helps u to see what pitch is doing while bowling first on green pitches .
5 - yes turning pitches gurantee a win as Asian teams have superior finger spinners 9/10 times . Hence a saqlain can get pakistan to win over india .
India in particular has gone away from the spin pitch template since 2000 likely because it started having true fast bowlers and India wanted to start winning abroad . Please go back and see azar demolishing England 3-0 in the early 90s . A raju and a chauhan became bedi and Prasanna!
6 - seaming pitches made to order - South African and new zea land pitches - that favor 6 feet 5 bowlers to bounce Asian teams out with seam and bounce actually are a good example .
I recommend u see pujara taking 11 body blows . Note how the pitch was responding to the taller bowlers . It was indeed a Herculean effort to win the series but note every effort was made to neutralize indias pace bowlers .
I only agree with your last paragraph - nothing wring with capitalizing on home advantage . England does not make any pitch which helps spinners . South Africa literally created pitches which made the contests a win toss win match series . New Zealand makes pitches which favour tall bowlers .
I would say australia makes the sportiest of pitches except gabba . Hence it’s always a pleasure to watch test series in Australia and of late in india barring the recent series which clearly is not attractive cricket but also shows that modern day batters cannot play excessive swing or seam . Few like Kohli showed amazing defense and few like Rohit showed how to score . But most just don’t know how to play when ball dominates bat
