India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar believes that as the nation has been setting down such wickets for ages, the argument over creating a spin-friendly track at the Eden Gardens for the first Test match against South Africa is meaningless.
India failed to chase a low 124-run target and was defeated by the Proteas by 30 runs in three days.
The 0-3 loss to New Zealand last year, in which the Blackcaps spinners were crucial to their historic clean-sweep of Rohit Sharma’s team, was reminiscent of the setback to South Africa in Kolkata.
Bhuvneshwar, though, didn’t take the loss too seriously.
“This is not the first time a spin-friendly track has been prepared. No one raised this question (before) because India were winning. And, winning and losing is part of the game.
“It’s not that the team has not lost before or it has lost for the first time. I don’t think it’s (defeat) a big worry for me,” said the 35-year-old pacer.
Bhuvneshwar stated that the choice would have been dependent on the state of the pitch when asked if India needed to play four spinners at the Eden.
“The way the wicket was prepared, we all know that the requirement was for four spinners (Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar). We had some good spinners, it was a turning track and the way the match went, it was a good decision to play (four) spinners,” he said.
India suffered a devastating blow when captain Shubman Gill’s neck injury prevented him from batting in India’s run chase, but Bhuvneshwar did not want to get involved in discussions on how to manage the young captain’s workload.
“Gill has become captain recently. If he so desires, he would speak out for himself. He is part of the think-tank, decision-making, so if he really needs rest he will say that he needs rest. Mentally and physically he is in a position to say that.” opined Bhuvneshwar, who would be donning Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s colours once again in the IPL next year.
With RCB under scrutiny following the stampede outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium earlier this year that claimed several lives, Bhuvneshwar, when asked whether the players would still be able to take the field with a positive mindset, said, “There are so many tournaments before the IPL, so when the IPL camp starts, a lot of things would be discussed then and what frame of mind the team is in… and what is going on.
“A lot will depend on how the players do in the tournaments preceding the IPL and how a players enters the IPL, so all those things will matter.”
On June 4, as RCB celebrated winning its first IPL title, a huge crowd gathered outside the stadium. The crush resulted in eleven deaths and several injuries.
