The hunt for points to make a pitch for top honours in the World Test Championship is one of the reasons for ‘challenging’ pitches worldwide where, with the onus on eking out victories at home, batting big and long has almost gone out of the window.

Three Day-Three finishes in the ongoing India-Australia series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy have attracted two pitch ratings of average and one rating of poor from match referees Andy Pycroft and Chris Broad respectively. Acknowledging that the referees were entitled to make their opinion, India head coach Rahul Dravid said on Tuesday, “What I will say is that, sometimes with WTC points at stake, you are looking to play on a wicket that produces results. It can happen and not only in India; even across the world, you are seeing that at times, it’s difficult to get that balance perfectly right.”