“This is what you expect when you come to India,” said Temba Bavuma, the skipper of South Africa, after his side won the first Test of the ongoing series against India. That assessment should have caused more shame for the home team’s management than a 30-run loss margin. The failure to chase a last-innings target of 124 runs on a third-day pitch will rankle the home team for a long time. However, collapses while batting last on a crumbling wicket are not unknown in Tests and, with the passage of time, this result too will become another piece of cold statistic remembered by only a few.
The bigger damage from this Test was to the reputation of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). India have lost five of the 14 Tests they have played at home since the beginning of 2024, including the 0-3 thrashing by New Zealand last year. Other than the loss in the first Test against the Kiwis at Bangalore, which occurred solely because of a wrong call to bat first on a drying wicket, all the other defeats have occurred on rank turners prepared on the specific instructions of the Indian team management.
The repeated debacles on such underprepared tracks even prompted one scribe to comment that spin should no longer be considered the home side’s weapon; instead, it may be designated as India’s poison, our own desi version of kryptonite!
South Africa’s captain Temba Bavuma (left), Marco Jansen (centre) and Ryan Rickelton celebrate their team’s win at the end of the first Test cricket match between India and South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 16, 2025. Photo: AFP/ Dibyangshu Sarkar
To be fair, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir was man enough to admit that this was exactly the type of wicket that he had asked for, even going to the extent of saying publicly that “the curator was very supportive”. Gambhir’s argument was that 124 was an eminently achievable target, and the failure to do so was on account of the non-application of batsmen to the task at hand. There were also some observations about the South Africans being “luckier” and their good fortune in winning the toss and batting first.
These observations, as well as the fact that the game got over within three days, raise some basic questions about the preparation of pitches and conduct of Test matches in our country:
(i) Why are Test matches played in our country? Is it still a popular version of this sport?
(ii) Is victory for the home side the only reason behind the conduct of Tests, or are they also intended to provide the spectators with high-quality cricket?
(iii) Are the groundsmen required to carry out the desires of the management of the home team, or should their commitment be towards the followers who come to watch the games?
Test matches were first played in India in 1933 and they have elicited huge fan following. Though the number of spectators who throng the venue has fallen in recent times, following the advent of limited-overs cricket and the Indian Premier League (IPL), there is no doubting that this version retains its charm among a large cross-section of cricket lovers. This is evident from the number of people who tune in to watch the matches being played in England and Australia every year.
South African captain Temba Bavuma (right) shakes hand with his Indian counterpart Shubman Gill after toss during the first day of the first Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 14, 2025. Photo: AFP/ Dibyangshu Sarkar
The five-Test series between England and India in 2025, which offered high-quality cricket for 25 days, saw a record 170 million people following the game through digital platforms alone, accounting for a total of 65 billion minutes of “watch time”. The last day of the final Test at Kensington Oval, which India won by six runs, attracted 13 million concurrent viewers! These figures tell the story that Test cricket still has a huge following amongst lovers of the game in India.
There is no disputing the fact that there is an element of “home advantage” attached to every sport. But this is magnified in cricket as the preparation of the pitch is the prerogative of the home side.
Since pitch plays a significant role in determining the match result, home associations often prepare wickets that suit their strengths. But till recently, this was done without denying spectators their quota of good-quality cricket.
Except for the first Test in the current Ashes series, not many matches in Australia and England finish within three days. Even in India, where we have a history of preparing pitches that help our spinners, matches used to be tightly contested, and there were many occasions when the result was reached only in the last one or two sessions. The Tests against Australia at Kolkata and Chennai in 2001 are classic examples of good pitches that favoured the home side but also produced top-quality cricket spread over all five days.
India’s captain Shubman Gill walks back to the pavilion after his injury during the second day of the first Test against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 15, 2025. Photo: AFP/ Dibyangshu Sarkar
Thus, while winning the game remains the home side’s management’s prime objective, the groundsman must take into account the interests of thousands of spectators on the ground and the millions watching on television or via digital platforms, and produce a wicket that meets the requirements of both. This is definitely a task of high order but not an impossible one.
The answer to the third question is simple. In theory, groundsmen are not required to follow the “diktats” of the team management of the home side. But, in practice, this is seldom the case. The authority in charge of the venue is the groundsman’s paymaster, and only a very “bold” person will dare to go against the wishes of the home side while preparing the pitch.
The only instance one can recall in recent times in which the groundsman prepared a pitch that helped the visiting side more was the Test at Nagpur between India and Australia in 2005. This was a time when the feud between two warring factions of BCCI was at its peak, and the association at Nagpur was aligned with the group opposed to the then-ruling faction. Hence, a “greentop” was prepared for this game, which helped the visitors win the match easily. The captain of the home side skipped this match, citing tennis elbow, but sources from within the side called it a case of “acute green wicketitis”!
The defeat at Eden Gardens should make the team management realise the sad truth that Indian batsmen are no longer expert spin bowlers. In the past, during the era of Gavaskar and Viswanath, members of the national side played domestic cricket, where the quality of spin bowling was high. This helped batsmen develop the required technical expertise to tackle spin bowling even on rank turners. Batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sehwag and VVS Laxman had developed this skill during their early days in first-class cricket, and they ensured that this remained with them throughout their career. But the present generation, who are brought up on a diet of white ball cricket and hardly take part in domestic first-class circuit, do not have the skillsets to take on good quality spin bowlers on underprepared wickets of the type that are laid out in test matches in India.
Finally, one is at a loss to understand the logic behind making such pitches. The away series against Australia and England had demonstrated that India possesses a top drawer pace bowling attack. Jaspirt Bumrah is arguably the most lethal fast bowler in international cricket today, while Mohammed Siraj has proved his ability to scythe through the batting line-up of opposing sides repeatedly. Pacers such as Mohamed Shami, who is on a comeback path after an injury, and Prasidh Krishna, one of the success stories of the tour to England, are world-class bowlers. But they are made to languish on the sidelines due to the team management’s stubborn insistence on preparing turning tracks.
One hopes that the defeat at Eden Gardens will serve as a final wake-up call for the BCCI and the team management. They should resolve that, in the future, they will leave the preparation of the pitch to the groundsmen, with only a general direction to prepare wickets that encourage good cricket. The home team may not win all the matches, which, in any case, they are not doing at present either. But a measure of this nature will help to improve the quality of cricket and pave the way for more exciting games. This will also send a message to the game’s followers and spectators that BCCI has their best interests at heart and will help improve attendance at the stadia and viewership through visual and digital media.