WTC final: Pitch was under prepared going into day one, claims Shardul Thakur

India allrounder Shardul Thakur has termed The Oval pitch as under prepared adding it is very different from the surface they played on back in 2021 India had won that game by 157 runs in September 2021 with Thakur getting a fifty in each inningsThakur copped two nasty blows on Friday but managed to score a crucial 51 He and Ajinkya Rahane shared a valuable 109run stand to take India to 296 in reply to Australias firstinnings total of 469 in the World Test Championship finalThe pitch is surely different Last time we played the pitch was doing something and everyone knows if there is cloud cover in England the ball moves around As the game went forward last time and the team started taking rollers it became flat But this time it was not anything like that It was under prepared I felt going in to the game Like we saw yesterday and today it was a bit up and down Shardul saidFrom one particular end the ball took off from length and the Australian pacers exploited that effectivelyIf we see yesterdays play also pitch changed a little Ball was hard and bouncing from odd length With six wickets down on the board not too many runs under pressure yes you would say the toughest hour though I have played handful of game but felt like welcome to Test cricket There is an area from where the ball is coming up there is a little grass around the crack and the length is such that batsmen cant leave the deliveries easily You have to play commit because we saw today many balls kept down and I mean that is an area of good length and I mean that area is at a good length a little short of length he addedSo thats the area where the batsmen cant immediately see and leave the ball You have to play it And if it bounces from there then good luck for the batsmen It was bouncing from the other end too but from a bit behind so the batsmen were getting time to adjustAlso Read Ponting questions Indias preparation for WTC final They have been outplayed so farThakur asserted that India remain very much in the game despite trailing Australia by 296 runsCricket is a funny game You can never say what is the right total especially in an ICC final One good partnership and you can chase down 450 or maybe more than that We saw last year England chased 400 here and they did not lose too many wicketsHe was all praise for Rahane who made a gritty 89 in his comeback TestAjinkya is one of the top players in the world He has scored runs in England Australia and South Africa It did not seem that he was batting badly though he wasnt getting the runs before being dropped Even today he was using all his experience of batting in English conditionsWith PTI inputs