Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has launched a scathing attack on the Eden Gardens pitch during the ongoing first Test against South Africa, calling it a \u201ccomplete mockery of Test cricket\u201d and declaring \u201c#RIPTESTCRICKET\u201d in a fiery social media outburst.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven Virat Kohli or Sachin Tendulkar cannot survive on this pitch,\u201d Harbhajan said on Day 2, as 17 wickets fell in a single session. \u201cThis is not cricket. This is a shame. The match is almost over on the second day. Where is the fight? Where is the balance?\u201d<\/p>\n
The surface\u2014dry, cracked and offering vicious turn and uneven bounce from the first morning\u2014has dominated proceedings. A total of 33 wickets have fallen in under two days, with spinners claiming 28 of them.<\/p>\n
Former England captain Michael Vaughan echoed Harbhajan\u2019s fury, tweeting: \u201cAwful pitch in Kolkata. Total carnage. This isn\u2019t Test cricket; it\u2019s a lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that such tracks \u201ckill the contest\u201d and make a mockery of five-day cricket.<\/p>\n
Ex-India all-rounder Irfan Pathan, commentating for the host broadcaster, was stunned by the deterioration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pitch at Eden,\u201d he posted on X, while former batting coach Sanjay Bangar rated the surface 5.5\/10, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s unplayable. The bounce is inconsistent; batters are pre-empting dismissals, not playing their shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even Dinesh Karthik revealed a telling detail: \u201cThe pitch wasn\u2019t watered the night before the match. That\u2019s why it broke up so early.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s former pacer Vernon Philander took a more pragmatic view: \u201cTalk about the players, not the pitch. Test cricket is about adapting.\u201d But batting coach Ashwell Prince admitted the surface had eroded trust: \u201cYou can\u2019t commit to a shot when the ball shoots or stays low randomly.\u201d<\/p>\n
As India closed in on a 1-0 series lead, the debate over the pitch overshadowed the result. Former Australia captain Aaron Finch offered a lone defence: \u201cNot everyone\u2019s cup of tea, but every ball is an event. Watching survival is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the ICC likely to issue a \u201cpoor\u201d rating and possible demerit points for Eden Gardens, Harbhajan\u2019s warning lingered: \u201cIf we keep serving this, Test cricket won\u2019t need opponents to die: we\u2019ll kill it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has launched a scathing attack on the Eden Gardens pitch during the ongoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[109709,109710,109711,109712,103030,103031,109713,109714,1721,7830,101,7836,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-265723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricketcontroversy","tag-cricketdebate","tag-cricketpitch","tag-edengardenspitch","tag-indvssa","tag-kolkatatest","tag-poorpitch","tag-unplayablepitch","tag-cricket","tag-harbhajansingh","tag-sports","tag-testcricket","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265723","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=265723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}