Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh—who predicted a 4-0 verdict in favour of India in the run-up to the four-match Test rubber against Australia—on Saturday blamed the pitch for the home team’s at the Maharastra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.
The Virat Kohli-led home side succumbed to their fourth biggest Test loss after Australian left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe spun a web to take identical figures of 6/35 in both the innings and break the pre-series favourites India’s backbone within just three days.
The 36-year-old Harbhajan had earlier predicted India, who had thrashed New Zealand, England and Bangladesh recently, to win the series comfortably against the Australians.
Crediting the Kangaroos for pulling off a sensational win, Harbhajan said: “Credit to @CricketAus for playing unbelievable well on that wicket.”
The Punjab tweaker, however, had a go at the pitch, which remained slow and low throughout the course of the game and hoped that the teams get better tracks in the remaining three matches of the rubber.
“Let’s hope we play on good tracks from here onwards and get the right results,” he said on Twitter.
Former India batsman Mohammad Kaif felt that the loss, a first at home since 2012 is a good wake-up call for the Indian side and said that too much of spin on the wicket could help both sides.