India team director Ravi Shastri has defended the pitches used in the Test series with South Africa and says one-day batting has led to lack of endurance in the longest format.

A 124-run win inside three days in the third Test at Nagpur clinched a series win for India in a match that saw no batsman pass 50, Murali Vijay posted the highest individual score with 40.

India's spinners accounted for all 20 of South Africa's wickets, with Ravichandran Ashwin finishing the game with figures of 12-98.

Australia's Glenn Maxwell labelled the surface "diabolical" and ex-opener Matthew Hayden described the pitch as a "Bunsen Burner", slang for a turner.

But Shastri told ESPNcricinfo: "Nothing wrong with it [the pitch in Nagpur]. I would hope the one in Delhi is absolutely the same. I have no qualms about it.

"It just goes to show that with the amount of one-day cricket being played, the tendency to graft, the tendency to spend long hours at the crease is diminishing.

"And when you saw Hashim [Amla] and Faf [du Plessis] batting, you thought there was nothing in the pitch. There was an era earlier who would play on these pitches and people would get hundreds, because they were prepared to go through the grind. 
"I think if someone had applied himself he would have got 80-odd, 90-odd, even a hundred,

"Nothing wrong with that [matches finishing inside three days]. It [Nagpur] was a Test match that was moving all the time.

"You compare this Test to the Test match in Perth [a draw between Australia and New Zealand], I would pay money for a ticket for this game. To hell with the five days. You go and sit for the last two days there.

"When we go overseas we don't have any choices. Why would you complain? I don't see anyone complaining, it's only some of them who have never played the game who are complaining.

"Let them [former Australian cricketers] sit in Australia and talk about their pitches. Tell them not to waste their time about Indian tracks. Come and play here.

"Which rule tells me that a ball can't turn on day one? Where does it tell me in the rulebook it can only swing and seam? Here, at times, I think unless you play on these tracks you won't know how to play on these tracks."