After the third day of play in the Kanpur Test did not see any play due to wet outfield despite no rain in the city throughout the entire day, the stadium and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) were widely criticised as India's World Test Championship (WTC) hopes were put at great risk and an old comment of Virat Kohli calling for Test cricket on Indian soil to be restricted to five centres went viral on social media.
“We’ve been discussing this for a long time now. And in my opinion, we should have five Test centres period. I agree with State Associations, rotations and you know giving games and all that, that is fine for T20 and One-day Cricket, but Test Cricket, teams that are coming in should know, we are going to play at these five centres, these are the pitches we’re going to expect, these are the kind of people that come to watch, crowds you know,” said Kohli in 2019 in a press conference when he was leading the side.
Ravichandran Ashwin Reacts To 5 Test Centres Debates
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Post India's victory in the Kanpur Test which saw the Rohit Sharma-led side complete a whitewash, Ashwin gave his opinion on the debate and explained that it will help the players but put the onus on the BCCI to take the decision.
"Does it help a player if you have just a few Test centres? Most certainly it does. Because when we go to Australia, they play India only at five Test centres. They don't play us in Canberra. They don't play us at any of the other venues where they won't be very familiar with the conditions. So do England.
"They have select Test centres and that's where they play. Some of those are only white-ball centres. Can we do it here (in India)? That's above my pay grade. I cannot comment on that," said Ashwin in a post-match press confernece.
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Last year, India's current Test captain Rohit was asked about the same issue and he disagreed with Kohli's suggestion and backed the Indian cricket governing body's decision to give Test matches to various centres in the country on a rotational basis.
"If you want to promote Test cricket, it should be played in every part of the country and not restrict it to just a handful of big centres. I'm pretty pleased that Test cricket is being played in placed like Dharamshala and Indore. I am just happy that we have been able to take cricket to all parts of the country," said Rohit during the India-Australia Test series in 2023 .
"All the Test centres we have played in since COVID-19, the crowd has been decent. Delhi, surprisingly, had superb crowd. We are not used to seeing huge crowd at big centres. So, Test cricket should be played everywhere," Rohit added.