"Will you blame the pitch or say that the shortcomings were in you?" - Aakash Chopra on India's annihilation of Australia

Aakash Chopra has questioned whether Australia should blame the pitch or their own shortcomings for the thrashing they received in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

India handed an innings and 132-run drubbing to the Aussies on Day 3 of the first Test in Nagpur on Saturday, February 11. While Rohit Sharma and Co. posted a 400-run total the only time they batted, the visitors were bundled out for 177 and 91 runs in their two innings.

While reviewing the first Test in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra highlighted that the pitch cannot be blamed for Australia's capitulation, reasoning:

"The situation is very bad. Will you blame the pitch or say that the shortcomings were in you? The pitch was okay because if a left-hander comes at No. 9 and scores runs and the No. 10 batter also makes a contribution and your entire team is bowled out for 91, Kangaroos - the truth is that you have come for sure but have not yet taken a leap."

Chopra added that the surface was not as difficult to bat on as the scorecard might suggest, saying:

"If a Test match gets over in two-and-a-half days, generally if you have not seen that match and you just see the scorecard, you feel what sort of pitch it might have been and that the batting might have been difficult. But that is not the case."

Australia didn't even bat a total of 100 overs across their two innings. None of their batters scored a half-century, with Marnus Labuschagne's 49 in the first innings being their best effort.

"The opposition team's batting was extremely weak" - Aakash Chopra

Steve Smith was the only Australian batter to show some resistance in the second innings. [P/C: BCCI]

While acknowledging that there was some assistance for the spinners, Chopra pointed out that India posted a massive total while batting on the same pitch, observing:

"The truth is that there was some help for spin on this pitch but the opposition team's batting was extremely weak because the Indian team scored 400 runs even on that pitch. There is a century and a couple of half-centuries as well."

India scoring 400 while batting second. The Whole talk about the Nagpur pitch should be 🤐 #INDvsAUS

The cricketer-turned-commentator concluded by stating that the match did not even last his three-day pre-match prediction:

"The story of the match was that it might go to the fourth day. Actually, I had tweeted at 9:15 on the first day that the pitch has been prepared for a three-day game and that it will be a bonus if it goes to the fourth day. Forget the fourth day, it didn't even go to the third session of the third day."

Ravichandran Ashwin (5/37) was the wrecker-in-chief in Australia's second innings. While Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Shami accounted for two dismissals apiece, Axar Patel picked up the other wicket.