'Why do we give importance to them?': Gavaskar on foreigners criticizing pitches in India

Hitting out at 'foreign players' who often criticize Indian pitches, legendary batsman and former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar feels that they should not be given any importance. He said they will keep doing it till the time they are getting publicity out of it.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has been quite vocal in his criticism of the pitches used in the ongoing Test series between India and England. Even former Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar had said India is using "too much" of home advantage and that Virat Kohli's team does not require assistance from the pitch to win the game. Ahead of the fourth Test, Vaughan had taken a dig at Indian pitches by sharing a picture of him standing in dug up soil with a bat in his hands.

'Why should we discuss what they are saying?'

"The discussion should have been around bowling and batting. The batsmen got bowled or were given LBW, how can we call it a bad pitch. Why do we give this much importance to foreign players? Why should we discuss what they are saying," Gavaskar told host broadcaster Star Sports on Thursday.

"When India gets all out on 36 runs, then are the comments of Kapil Dev, (Sachin) Tendulkar, (Sourav) Ganguly or (Virender) Sehwag given importance by that country's media or TV channel. Not at all. Then why are we giving importance to them? And when we will not give them importance, they will learn the lesson. Till the time they know that they will get importance and publicity, they will keep doing it. England team did not complain. Joe Root did not complain," he added.

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India had managed to defeat England by ten wickets within two days in the pink-ball Test. Commenting on the pitch during the match, Vaughan had tweeted, "Let's be honest this is not a 5 day Test pitch !! #INDvENG." Several other players like former England spinner Monty Panesar, Alastair Cook and others have been cribbing about the spinner-friendly pitches.

However, after the third Test, Rohit Sharma had clarified that he did not think the pitch had any demons. Even India skipper Virat Kohli was vocal about the dreadful batting display from the two teams. Both the team are currently competing against each other in the fourth and final Test of the series. At stumps on Thursday, India's score read 24/1 with Rohit (8*) and Pujara (15*) at the crease -- trailing the visitors by 181 runs in the first innings.

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(With ANI inputs)