India captain Virat Kohli has reacted angrily to ongoing debates around the pitch in Ahmedabad, blaming England’s two-day defeat in the third Test solely on “a bizarre display of batting”.

Kohli has overseen two successive thumping victories on big-spinning surfaces since England took the series opener in gentler conditions in Chennai, concluding in a two-day finish last week.

There has been no shortage of critique around the pitches, though much of the argument has settled along partisan lines, with most of the disapproval coming from outside India and the case for the defence coming from within the home camp.

Kohli has hardly set the series alight with the bat, scoring 172 runs at 34.40 in five attempts, but remains more than happy to attribute low-scoring to human error rather than any external factors.

England have suggested the pink ball used in the day/night Test skidded unpredictably but that suggestion did little to persuade the home skipper.

“I don’t understand why a cricket ball or pitch are brought into focus. Why don’t we focus on the fact that the batsmen were just not skilled enough on that pitch to play properly,” he said.

“It was a bizarre display of batting by both teams. I will maintain that because I’ve played the game long enough. It’s not a change in ball colour. It’s still round and weights 5.5oz, I don’t know what difference it makes suddenly. If you just make a cricket ball or the pitch helping the bowlers the focus, you’re not really reading the game properly in my opinion.”