The Eden Gardens pitch has come under severe scrutiny after 16 wickets fell on Day 2 of the first Test between India and South Africa.
Resuming at 37/1, the hosts were bowled out for 189, but Ravindra Jadeja (4/29) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/12) reduced the Proteas to 93/7 at stumps, with the visitors holding a slender lead of 63 runs in the second innings.
Amid the outrage, Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly has come to the defence of the deteriorating Eden surface, claiming that this is what the Indian camp wanted.
“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," Ganguly told News18 Bangla.
Earlier, Ganguly himself confirmed that the Indian team management had not requested a rank turner for the series opener against South Africa.
“They haven’t asked for it yet, so I can’t answer that question. It looks like a very good one," Ganguly had told PTI last Monday.
After the close of play on Day 2, India bowling coach Morne Morkel addressed a press conference, where he admitted that the team didn’t anticipate the Eden Gardens pitch to deteriorate so quickly.
"Yeah, look, I mean, to be honest with you, even we didn't expect a wicket to deteriorate so quickly... we all thought when we watched that first couple of hours that it was a good wicket, so it did deteriorate quite quickly, which was unexpected," Morkel said in the post-day presser.
He added that such unpredictability is what makes playing in India so challenging. "That's the beauty sometimes of playing in the subcontinent... you need to be able to adapt and react to conditions quite quickly and that's the sort of challenge that we're facing here at the moment."
South Africa’s second innings folded for 153 in the morning innings on Day 3 to set a target of 124 for India to chase.
The hosts went to Lunch break with 10/2 on the board, needing 114 more runs with seven wickets in hand as skipper Shubman Gill won’t be able to bat due to neck injury.
