A bigger question has also been raised by the pitch dispute that resulted from India’s humiliating 30-run defeat to South Africa while chasing a meek 124: are captain Shubman Gill and coach Gautam Gambhir in agreement on what constitutes optimum home conditions?
A dry Eden Gardens wicket cannot hide the deeper fault lines exposed by the collapse, which was India’s lowest home chase failure.
Gill was adamant that the squad has abandoned the idea of favoring “rank turners” just one month ago, on the eve of the West Indies Test series in Ahmedabad.
“…we would be looking to play on wickets that offer both to the batsmen and to the bowlers,” Gill had said, outlining a vision of balanced surfaces.
However, the pitch on which India entered the series against the defending World Test champions was the complete opposite of what their captain had urged.
The Eden strip was kept under cover at night and was not watered for nearly a week. The outcome was a dry, flaky surface that collapsed from session one, in a match that lasted merely eight sessions yielding 38 wickets, with pacers taking 16 and spinners taking 22.
Eden proposed the reverse if the squad had moved away from rank turners. Gambhir declared without hesitation and without apology that the pitch was precisely what the team management had asked for.
“If you don’t play well this is what happens. There were no demons in the wicket,” he asserted.
Ask KL Rahul, who was duped by a Marco Jansen delivery that reared up sharply in the fourth innings, or Aiden Markram, who was dismissed by a ball from Jasprit Bumrah that leaped off the off-stump line in the first hour of the first day, and they would disagree.
Gambhir maintained that the harm was being caused by the seamers.
“Ultimately, if we had won this Test match, you wouldn’t even be talking about this pitch,” he said in his usual combative style.
But there is a clear communications disconnect. Gill had sought for balance. What happened was exactly what the coach wanted. The captain is doubtful for the second Test in Guwahati on November 22 since he was unable to play due to neck spasms that required hospitalization.
Gill’s neck spasm while playing a slog-sweep boundary off Simon Harmer prevented him from playing after day one. Indian batting lacked both discipline and flexibility in his absence.
India has now lost four of their previous six home Test matches, shattering the team’s illusion of invincibility in its backyard.
India has won 8 of its 18 Test matches under Gambhir, four of which have come against the West Indies and Bangladesh.
The script in Kolkata was similar to India’s 0-3 loss to New Zealand at home last year, a series in which Mitchell Santner (13 in Pune) and Ajaz Patel (11 in Mumbai) revealed the team’s weaknesses on turning tracks.
India’s World Test Championship run was disrupted by that series, and the Eden loss now falls into the same category. India’s WTC rankings were also reversed by this defeat. India fell to fourth place with just two victories in eight Tests in the new cycle, while South Africa rose to third place with two victories in three.
From the moment India touched down in Kolkata on Tuesday, all eyes were fixed on the pitch. Team officials held repeated meetings with curator Sujan Mukherjee as scrutiny intensified. Eden Gardens — a venue steeped in Test history, from the famed 2001 Laxman-Dravid epic to countless classics — ended up producing a surface so contentious that even Harbhajan Singh publicly criticised it.
“They have completely destroyed Test cricket. RIP Test cricket,” Harbhajan said.
Talk of transformation was written off by Cheteshwar Pujara as an excuse.
“Losing at home cannot be accepted, transition or not,” he said.
On day two, India was in control of the Test at stumps. With Temba Bavuma on 29 (78 balls) and rookie Corbin Bosch on 1, South Africa was 93/7, effectively 63 ahead.
On a morning in Kolkata, the weather usually favors seam with a cool Ganges breeze.
Common sense suggested Bumrah should have opened the attack from the Club House End, where he claimed a first-innings five-for. Instead, he was held back until the ninth over and brought on from the opposite end — by which time Bosch was settled, Bavuma was firmly in, and South Africa’s lead had already pushed past the psychological 100-run mark.
In the end, Bavuma’s undefeated 55 made the difference.
This loss is not a singular collapse. Without batting depth to support it, it mimics tactical confusion and over-curated pitches.
India won’t play at home again until the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in January 2027 after Guwahati, where they can no longer win the series regardless of the outcome.
Before that, they head to Sri Lanka in August and New Zealand in October next year, and their WTC campaign now faces a clearly uphill task.
