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Despite the drubbing Dhoni wants turning track in Kolkata
Despite the drubbing in the second Test, on a turning pitch at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni stood by his demand for a similar wicket in next week's third match in Kolkata.
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England thrashed India by ten wickets to level the four-match series at 1-1 and keep themselves in the hunt for their first series win in India since 1984-85.
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Dhoni reiterated that tracks like the Wankhede help take the toss out of the equation, making it an even contest between two teams.
'I will still like to have a typical sub-continental wicket'
"I will still like to have a typical sub-continental wicket that turns from the first day; it should turn from the first day. I think this was a very good wicket.
"In India, or in sub-continent, the matches should happen on these kinds of wickets, because it takes the toss out of the equation -- the ball was turning from the first day itself -- so that both the teams have equal chances, reducing the impact of toss," he said.
He called upon his batsmen to take up the challenge of performing on such wickets and not just rely on flat tracks to notch huge scores.
"Yes, of course, that's what our specialty is. What's the point in playing on flat pitches, trying to win the toss and bat for three or four days of a Test? You want to face challenges in Test cricket and these are the sort of tracks that push you to that. Definitely, all the wickets should be like this."
'I felt we could have done slightly better'
Monty Panesar took 11 wickets and Graeme Swann eight for cumulative figures of 19 for 229 in 125.2 overs. On the other hand, India's spinning trio of Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha were rather insignificant, returning just eight wickets for 418 runs in 116.1 overs.
India's skipper tried to explain why the England spinners fared better than their counterparts.
"There is also a particular style of bowling; you also try to bowl fast. But we didn't get the same kind of purchase out of the wicket as Monty; but it's same. As two different batsmen, you know some conditions suit him really well, and some don't.
"I felt what we could have done slightly better, you know, is to let them drive a bit, better than what we did. If you bowl short on a wicket that has bounce you will get more time.
"As I said, there was more bounce on the wicket; may be, we were slightly on the shorter side. But it doesn't really mean we were really short, the English batsmen played them really well and they were waiting on the backfoot for the ball to turn and were able to play," he said.
Dhoni refused to blame the batsmen
Dhoni refused to blame the batsmen, some of whom failed in both the innings. In fact, in the second innings, except for Gautam Gambhir (65 from 142 balls) no other batsman lasted more than 20 balls.
"As I said, you would get some tracks where some bowlers bowl really well and put pressure on the whole line-up. Particularly, if you the see the way Monty bowled; it put a lot of pressure on the whole batting line-up. He didn't give us anything easy to score off.
"Yes, we didn't perform to the extent we could have or what reflects on paper when it comes to our batting line-up. We will innovate ourselves," he said.