However, former Australia captain Michael Clarke was highly critical of the surface. "The SCG is my favourite ground in the world, it is my home ground, and I hate saying this out

The SCG pitch has been criticized by former Indian cricketers Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil Gavaskar. Vengsarkar called the pitch "substandard" and heavily biased toward pacers, making batting extremely difficult.

The best Test series in years was played on the best pitches according to official ratings with even the spicy SCG deck Australia beat India in three days on getting the tick.

The remaining pitches at the four other venues of the just-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy have been rated 'very good'

India legend Sunil Gavaskar, now a provocative commentator, claimed if wickets fell at that rate in India, “there would be hell” with complaints about the state of the pitch. But the ICC ticked off the SCG pitch, giving it the second-highest rating.