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After Virat Kohli asked the Test venues to be numbered in India, Ashwin had echoed the same view post India's 2-0 series win against West Indies which failed to attract any crowd.
India may have won the two-match home Test series against West Indies 2-0 but the crowd during both the Tests was disappointing as well as the pitches. After the series, India coach Gautam Gambhir advocated for better pitches in red-ball cricket for the 'nicks to carry.' Echoing his stance, former India spinner Ravi Ashwin has also called for Test venues in the country to be numbered - something former skipper Virat Kohli had said in 2019. Both, Virat and Ashwin retired from Test cricket this year along with Rohit Sharma as India started the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle under new skipper Shubman Gill.
"Test centres is not about crowds alone. It is also about the familiarity of conditions. If we are playing a Test in Guwahati or Ranchi, I am not against these venues as a possibility. But the problem in India is every surface has a different identity. There is literally no bounce in the Eastern part of the country. It becomes a very ordinary Test match pitch then," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel after the series. "Otherwise, the only point is you are playing within that Indian map as home, but it is not home," he added.
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India had elected to bat first in Delhi Test, second of the series, and scored 515 runs in the first innings before declaring. In reply, West Indies were bowled out for 248 in the first innings and were given a follow-on. The visitors looked more settled on a benign pitch, scoring 390 runs with two centurions in the scorecard. The fact that India had to bat again and the Test was stretched into the fifth day, put focus on the quality of pitch and of the venue due to lack of crowd.