'I don't know what's going on here but something needs to be done about this': Mark Waugh unleashes on Ahmedabad pitch

After the pitches in Nagpur, Delhi and Indore failed to meet his expectations, former Australia captain Mark Waugh has now directed his aim towards the 4th Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.

After the pitches in Nagpur, Delhi and Indore failed to meet his expectations, former Australia captain Mark Waugh has now directed his aim towards the 4th Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. The pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium, hosting the final tie of the India vs Australia Test series, has so far turned out to be the best for batting, but the Australia great is still not impressed at what has been thrown. Waugh has slammed the curators for waiting till the last moment to finalise the deck on which the Test match will be played on.

Mark Waugh is not impressed with the Ahmedabad pitch either. (Getty Images)

Two pitches were prepared for the series decider, with both having a tinge of green on them, a stark contrast to the surfaces in Nagpur, Delhi and Indore. However, the decision as to which pitch would host the contest wasn't decided until last evening, after the two captains addressed the pre-match press conference yesterday. The move caught stand-in captain Steve Smith by surprise, with Waugh later expressing his displeasure with such tactics.

"This is not on. I don't know how you don't know what pitch you're playing on. In Australia, I think the groundsman and curators are told months in advance, so they set up the pitch for the camera, the side-screen, the spectators. But in India, it's different," Waugh said on FOX Cricket.

"It's a bit like county cricket. You used to turn up to county grounds and there would be three pitches prepared depending on who turned up for the opposition side, then they would decide. I don't know what's going on here but I think something needs to be done about this."

After India won the first two Tests, they prepared a rank turner in Indore, but the ploy backfired as their own batters fell prey to Australia spinners Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann. Both grabbed a five-wicket-haul each as India's batting slipped in both innings and Australia won the Test by 9 wickets. Former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin pointed out Rohit Sharma's statements after India's win in Delhi, and underlines how India were a victim of their own complacency.

"If you go back to the last Test match, just before the Test, Rohit Sharma said, 'I would like the next wicket to be a green wicket, get us ready for the Test championship'. But Australia didn't read that script, they won the Test match. I just think they prepared that wicket thinking Australia were going to lose that Test match, then all of a sudden panicked, and now they had to go back to a traditional Indian wicket," Haddin said on the same broadcast.