With the narrative surrounding the India vs South Africa 1st Test match at Eden Gardens revolving around the erratic nature of the pitch provided, India head coach Gautam Gambhir dismissed all the talks about the pitch, reiterating that the pitch was exactly what India had wanted.
“This is exactly the pitch we were looking for. And I feel that the curator was very, very helpful. This is exactly what we wanted and this is exactly what we got. If you don’t play well, this is what happens,” Gambhir said to the media after India lost to South Africa by 30 runs, failing to overhaul a 123-run target.
With batters from both teams, except Temba Bavuma who scored a gritty half century, failing to properly read the wicket, Gambhir said that the pitch did not have any demons in it and was playable.
“First of all there were no demons in the wicket. This wasn’t an unplayable wicket Temba Bavuma also made runs, Axar also made runs, Washi also scored. The point is if we always talk about the wicket which you call a turning track, if you see the stats, majority of wickets were taken by seamers. We always talk about how the wicket is behaving you’ll see, in the 40 wickets, the majority have been taken by seamers.
This was such a wicket that if you have decent technique, have mental toughness and the most important part is your temperament. I you grind and bat long enough, you can make runs. If you try to play attacking, it’ll be difficult. The players who defended well, like KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, they scored runs. I already said that if your defence is solid, it’s not a pith where you cannot make runs. We have played on tracks like these before as well,” he said.
“When there was so much turn on offer, majority of the wickets went to the seamers. Point is that you should know how to play turn. And this is what we asked for and this is what we got. The curator was very supportive and I still believe, irrespective of how the wicket was, 123 was chaseable. It might not be a wicket that is very, very flamboyant where you can play those big shots but if you are willing to put your head down, this is a wicket where you can score,” he added.