Former Indian opening batter and commentator Aakash Chopra has lashed out at the playing conditions at the Sano International Ground for the only T20I between Japan and India as the hosts fell short by only two runs.
Interestingly, the surface turned out to be a nightmare for batters as the ball turned square, making it tough to score big. In the five-overs-aside game, India managed to post only 32/4. In response, Japan scored 30/3, losing the game by only two runs.
“As far as the pitch is concerned, it is a big challenge. Because the way it played and the match happened, started quickly and ended quickly, it almost went like a blur. But matches cannot be played on these types of pitches if you want to take international cricket to remote areas. It has to be played on better surfaces. It is not raining, but the ground is not drying up because you don’t have a super sopper or the capacity to cover it. If you are playing an international match here, then it is just not good enough. This is a challenge that everyone will have to sort out,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
Further, Chopra reckoned that at one stage, Japan looked like favourites to win the game. In the third over of the chase, Ravi Bishnoi conceded 10 runs, tilting the game in Japan’s favour. However, captain Kendel Fleming’s dismissal meant India were back in the game.
“Genuinely, at one stage, you thought that we’re done. We were thinking fun and frolic, we’ll just laugh and giggle and get through it. The Indian team also seemed to have similar intentions and attitude, which is understandable and acceptable. Not a huge fan of a 5-over game, but under the circumstances, it was okay,” he added.
India will next take part in the Asian Games 2026 campaign.
India squad for the 2026 Asian Games: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (VC), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yash Thakur
