KOLKATA: Sunday saw India suffer their fourth consecutive Test defeat to a SENA country at home, all of them mostly on turning wickets. A cause for concern, surely. Either the wickets are not suiting India or the technique of playing on them is lacking. Despite playing with four spinners, a relatively unknown
Simon Harmer dazzled.
And despite the presence of KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and
Rishabh Pant, Temba Bavuma, who has far less exposure in facing spin, dished out a batting masterclass.
Was the Eden Gardens pitch an ideal one for India? Yes, it was, India head coach
Gautam Gambhir said with a lot of conviction. “This is exactly the pitch we were looking at. This is exactly the pitch we wanted and the curator was very, very helpful,” he said. The repeated emphasis on “exactly what we want” wasn’t lost.
So, it comes down to the second. Do the India batters lack the technique to play on such wickets? Gambhir was not so emphatic when assessing the batting.
“I think more than the skills, it’s about handling and absorbing pressure. International cricket is all about pressure,” he said. “Rather than thinking about pressure, you’ve got to start embracing pressure and that is something which on wickets like these or when we play in Indian conditions, when we are chasing in the fourth innings, we need to get better at. Obviously, skills are there, that’s why they’re here. They’ve done well in domestic cricket, wherever they play. That’s why they’re playing international cricket for the country. But more importantly, I think if you can get better in handling the pressure, I think you’ll be fine.”
There were, of course, the experiments, like playing with four spinners. The kind of wicket here might have called for that, but then the Eden always provides some help to pacers, at least early in the day. Bowlers were not that big a problem, maybe apart from the first session on Sunday, when they should have wrapped up things earlier. Not starting off with Jasprit Bumrah could have hurt India as Temba Bavuma, in particular, looked quite comfortable against spin. “We felt that having two left-handed spinners against them on this wicket can be useful,” Gambhir explained and said it was a right call by Pant.
It will also be debated if Washington Sundar was the right man for the No.3 spot. That’s a specialist’s position and it can be questioned if Sundar is ready for that against a top-class team. Perhaps the second Test in Guwahati will answer that.
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