{"id":256503,"date":"2025-11-11T09:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T09:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/256503\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T09:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T09:01:09","slug":"ind-vs-sa-1st-test-will-reverse-swing-hold-the-key-at-eden-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/256503\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs SA 1st Test: Will reverse swing hold the key at Eden? | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"INDIndia take on South Africa in the first Test of the two-match series from Friday. (AFP Photo) KOLKATA: Reverse swing could be a major factor at the Eden Gardens when India take on South Africa in the first Test of the two-match series from Friday. And who better than Jasprit Bumrah<\/a> to make the old red ball swing late? The black soil pitch is quite hard without much grass four days before the Test starts and as per experts, there aren\u2019t much indications that these characters will change drastically within this time.\u201cCracks are likely to appear here quite early, making the ball rough as the game progresses,\u201d an expert told TOI. \u201cThat should help reverse swing, something which Bumrah will relish.\u201d<\/p>\n

No off days as captain Shubman Gill, coach Gautam Gambhir arrive in Kolkata for Test series<\/p>\n

However, India will be aware that South Africa too have bowlers who can make the old ball talk and any condition will surely not be one-way traffic. \u201cThe wicket has consistent bounce and that will help the batters. In fact, it has all the makings of a good batting wicket,\u201d he said.However, that can work for both teams. As South Africa proved in the \u2018A\u2019 match in Bengaluru, they have batters who can exploit good conditions too. Temba Bavuma<\/a> had a good outing in Bengaluru. So did Zubayr Humza. And let\u2019s not forget the likes of Aiden Markram<\/a> and Tony de Zorzi, who have skills to negotiate Bumrah\u2019s guiles. Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul will not be the only quality batters out there.\".\"As the curators bounced the ball on the surface to test its consistency, one suddenly kept low. \u201cThat was a crack, which will be taken care of before the Test starts,\u201d the expert assured.Although the wicket is expected to offer spin, it will not be a rank turner. Even though India\u2019s spin attack is among the most formidable in the game currently, South Africa too have their own arsenal in Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer. India might have to approach this game a bit differently from how they did against West Indies.India head coach Gautam Gambhir and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had a look at the Eden wicket on Monday morning. They, however, did not offer any suggestions or directives. \u201cThey had a close look, discussed between themselves and left,\u201d a member of the ground staff said. \u201cThey did not tell us anything.\u201dGambhir, however, hadn\u2019t been too happy with the wicket in their last Test against West Indies in Delhi. The wicket had been on the slower side and Gambhir felt there should have been a bit more carry. The curators at the Eden assure of a better wicket with \u201csomething for everyone\u201d. That would make the batters as well as the bowlers happy. After all, an even contest is what makes a match interesting.The expert also assured that it won\u2019t be a three-day wicket. \u201cWe should see a proper five-day contest,\u201d he said. Apparently some of the recent matches which have lasted less than three days (the Ahmedabad Test against West Indies to name one) haven\u2019t gone down well with the broadcasters. They have complained to the BCCI about loss of revenue. The board is said to have conveyed to the host associations to make wickets that last the distance. \u201cAlthough that cannot be assured, the curators always try to make wickets that do not break too fast.\u201dAnother issue at the Eden will be the light. Around this time of the year, the light starts fading here by 4 pm and a 9.30 am start would mean the floodlights might have to switched on towards the end. \u201cThat might alter the conditions a little,\u201d the expert said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India take on South Africa in the first Test of the two-match series from Friday. (AFP Photo) KOLKATA:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[31861,1721,102939,106560,102938,6770,7054,101,102940,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-256503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-aiden-markram","tag-cricket","tag-ind-vs-sa","tag-ind-vs-sa-1st-test","tag-india-vs-south-africa","tag-jasprit-bumrah","tag-shubman-gill","tag-sports","tag-temba-bavuma","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}