The immediate target of the blame has been put on the likes of the current skipper Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir by former India captain and the current president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Sourav Ganguly after the pitch at the Eden Gardens in the ongoing first Test against South Africa has been the hype of the last three days.
Sourav Ganguly Blames Gill–Gambhir Duo for Eden Gardens Pitch Chaos
The 22 yards also presented changeable turn and irregular bounce which bothered the batters because the first day recording 27 wickets followed by the second day recording 27 wickets. By the time I had written this piece, there were four wickets that India had to overcome in the fourth and final innings and still had less than 80 runs to win.
As the batters struggled and the match was expected to conclude within three days, the strip at Eden Gardens received an extreme criticism by the former cricketers such as Harbhajan Singh and Michael Vaughan who labelled it as a mockery of Test cricket.
Actually, it has been tough to say the least since the High Court end as there were some dark areas observed on the track since the commencement of the Test. Through all the commotion, Ganguly informed that the preparation of the pitch has been based on the wish-list of the Indian team management.
“The pitch is what the Indian camp wanted. This is what happens when you don’t water the pitch for four days. Curator Sujan Mukherjee can’t be blamed,” Saurav Ganguly told News18 Bangla.
What Sourav Ganguly said earlier?
Having been put out at 159 in the first innings the South Africans could not do much better than 189 in the first essay. In the second innings, the South Africans were dismissed at 159 and this gave India a target of 124 runs. As a matter of fact, three days had elapsed before a batter could make a fifty in this track, and only a single man, South African captain Temba Bavuma, was lucky enough.
It is worth noting that Ganguly had said last week in an incident that there was no demand on the part of the Indian team management regarding the nature of the pitch as regards the first Test. It is shown that everything got nearer with the Test match coming closer.
Before the match, Gill and Gambhir were extensively discussing pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee on minus one and two match days before the match.
