Boria Majumdar at Eden Gardens
There were nearly 42,000 people at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. And they witnessed an intense day of Test cricket. Many will say the pitch was poor. How can India continue to prepare such wickets? Sujan Mukherjee will be taken to task. The fact is that India wanted a dry wicket, for that’s what helps them. And so far, one has to say they have controlled the game.
Coming to the pitch first, yes, it isn’t the best. There is uneven bounce and turn. But then, we have seen surfaces which are far worse than this. While two wrongs don’t make a right, who decides what is a good pitch? Take the SCG one at the start of the year. The game was over in two and a half days and, in the words of Michael Clarke, it was the worst wicket he had seen at the SCG in 25 years. Not much was said about it, and all we agreed on was that India should have batted better and showed more application.
This wicket was indeed tough to bat on. But as Sunil Gavaskar said, it wasn’t devilish. Batters needed to apply themselves and counter-punch. Most of them lacked the skill to do so. That’s what resulted in the flurry of wickets, and yet again drew attention to the impact of white-ball cricket. Modern-day batters don’t have the skill to play in difficult conditions, and that’s a reality we all need to accept.
Coming to the game, India should indeed win from here. They have South Africa on the mat and need to keep them there. In a low-scoring match, every run counts and India will know that well. In the absence of Shubman Gill, India knew they had to bowl well in the second innings and give themselves as little as possible to chase.
The game will be over in the first or second session on day three. And most likely, it will be India that go to Guwahati 1-0 up. It will help redeem the ghosts of that nightmarish New Zealand series a year ago, and get the reign of Gautam Gambhir and Shubman Gill firmly on track. Only, Gill needs to get better as quickly as possible, to be there to lead the team in Guwahati.
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