India's wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav didn’t mince his words as he compared the pitch served for the second Test against South Africa in Guwahati to a "road".
Kuldeep’s comment comes as the benign nature of the surface allowed Proteas lower-order batters to propel the team's first-innings score to 489.
Asked about his views on playing in Kolkata, where batters struggled on a crumbling track and here in Barsapara where it became a nightmare for the spinners, Kuldeep's response was studded with sarcasm.
"Kolkata ka wicket toh alag thaa. Yeh to pura road tha (Kolkata's wicket was different and this was a whole road). So it's challenging and that's why it's called Test cricket," said Kuldeep, who was the stand-out Indian bowler with figures of 4/115 in 29.1 overs.
However, Kuldeep mentioned that one needs to show fighting abilities to counter adverse conditions.
"It is not always about domination but it is also very important how you come back on a good batting surface. It was a difficult wicket for the bowlers because I didn't feel that there was a lot of help in this wicket."
According to Kuldeep, it is important to move on quickly rather than thinking about the nature of the track.
"Even for fast bowlers it didn't seem like a lot of help, but yeah, this is Test cricket and you should enjoy it. You should enjoy, learn more and the more you mature, you shouldn't think too much about the wicket. You should go there and play. Next Test, there could be a better wicket, so no complaints."
He was quick to highlight that after the opening session on the first day, when some underlying moisture was still at play, there was no assistance for the slow bowlers.
"Personally I felt yesterday first session, there was a bit of moisture in the wicket, so I got a little bit of turn there in the first session. After that it was very good to bat on," Kuldeep stated.
"There wasn't any turn yesterday as well as today. Today was much better to bat on because I hardly got any turn. Even me and Jadeja we have been talking about that," he added.
Kuldeep was pleased about the fact that India kept things tight in the first session with South Africa getting only 69 but he always knew that with wickets in hand, the tourists would have gone after the bowling.
"Marco Jansen took chances and batted well. And this happens generally when the partnerships are long and you are in a good stable position compared to the other team. Then you want to capitalise and the wicket was good for batting."
While Kuldeep sent down close to 30 overs in South Africa’s first essay, stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant used him for only 12 overs on the second day. However, the left-arm tweaker didn't make a huge deal out of it.
"I am very happy with whatever number I bowled. We got 4-5 bowlers more and everyone bowled really well, so you have to keep changing and you can't just keep bowling from one end, so I haven't had any issue with that. I bowled 30 overs and 30 overs is good for any wrist spinner," he remarked.
(With PTI Inputs)
