Follow UsThe pitch at the Eden Gardens has been the talk of the town ever since India lost the first Test against South Africa by 30 runs. While head coach Gautam Gambhir believes that his side got the track that they wanted, many experts believe that it was not a pitch on which Test cricket should be played.
Among those is former India spinner Harbhajan Singh, who feels even greats like Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar would not have survived on such a surface.
"Test cricket has been completely RIP-ed. Rest in peace. I don't think anything is left of Test cricket... at least Indian Test cricket. In England, the matches were fantastic. We praised how the pitches behaved there and how the boys won matches. That was real Test cricket - there was thrill, you could feel the effort. But this? These pitches are bad," Harbhajan said on his YouTube channel.
"Wherever you bowl, the ball is turning unpredictably. The batter has no clue what to do. No matter how good your technique is - even if you are Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli - you won't survive on such pitches. One ball will shoot up, another will stay low, another will spin absurdly and you'll get out. Skill doesn't matter here; only the pitch is deciding everything. And this isn't new. This has been happening for years," he added.
Chasing 124, India fell 30 runs short in Kolkata. As a result, they have now lost four of their last six matches at home, which is an alarmingly high number. To add insult to injury, their captain, Shubman Gill, could not bat in the second innings and could miss the next Test in Guwahati, starting November 22 (Saturday).