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‘I’m sorry, that's double standards': Ashwin takes aim at pitch crusaders after 19 wickets fall on Day 1 of Ashes
Amidst contrasting reactions to pitch conditions, Ashwin highlighted the double standards in cricket after a tumultuous opening day of the Ashes in Perth.
Ravichandran Ashwin took aim at what he called the “double standards” of global cricket voices, contrasting the uproar over India’s three-day Test defeat to South Africa in Kolkata with the muted reaction to a dramatic opening day of the Ashes in Perth, where 19 wickets fell in just 72 overs.
The Kolkata surface at Eden Gardens came under heavy fire earlier this month after 15 wickets tumbled on Day 1 and the match wrapped up inside three days, with India failing to chase 124 in the fourth innings. Former players — including ex-England captain Michael Vaughan, who labelled the pitch “awful” — accused India of preparing surfaces that turned too early and skewed contests unfairly toward spinners.
Ashwin, watching the frenzy unfold around the Perth Test, suggested the same energy would be missing despite a more extreme collapse in conditions far from the subcontinent. Sharing a GIF on X of a man coughing and apologising for “double standards,” he wrote: “Only 19 wickets fell at Perth today, but an excellent day’s cricket. Oh no! What if the same happens tomorrow in Guwahati?”
The swipe highlighted his long-standing frustration with how surfaces in India are routinely judged harshly, while similar bowler-friendly conditions in SENA countries are often romanticised as “great Test cricket.”
Pace carnage in Perth as Starc and Stokes dominate
Ashwin’s post came shortly after an extraordinary opening day of the first Ashes Test, where bat and pad were sideshows in a contest dictated entirely by pace.
England captain Ben Stokes opted to bat first on a bright Perth morning but watched his side crumble to 172 as Mitchell Starc delivered a sensational 7-58 — his best Test return. Starc set the tone immediately, removing Zak Crawley for a duck in the first over, before striking twice more to dismiss Ben Duckett (21) and Joe Root (0). England, intent on maintaining their Bazball tempo, did score briskly at 5.23 an over, but wickets fell often enough that momentum never held.
Only Harry Brook (52) and Ollie Pope (46) produced any resistance in a 55-run stand, England’s largest partnership of the day. After lunch, Starc tore through the middle order, flattening Stokes’s off stump with an inswinger and later finishing off the tail with back-to-back strikes that left him on a hat-trick heading into the second innings.
Australia’s reply, though, collapsed even more dramatically.
The hosts were thrown into disarray almost immediately when Jofra Archer trapped debutant Jake Weatherald lbw second ball. Because Usman Khawaja had been off the field for more than eight minutes during England’s innings and hadn’t served the required time back on it, he was barred from opening — triggering a reshuffle that sent Marnus Labuschagne to the top and pushed Steve Smith into the first over.
Archer removed both Weatherald and Labuschagne, before Brydon Carse struck twice in quick succession to dismantle Australia’s top order and reduce them to 31-4. A brief revival came through a 45-run stand between Head (21) and Cameron Green (24), but Stokes extinguished the flicker. In a blistering six-over spell, he snatched 5-23, removing Head, Green, Alex Carey (26), Starc (12) and Scott Boland (0) to leave Australia staggering at 123-9 by stumps — still 49 runs behind.
Mark Wood added to the violence of the day when a 147 kph bouncer knocked Green off balance and almost into his stumps, emblematic of the pitch’s unpredictable steep bounce that troubled batters from both sides.
