‘Coach thodi jaake khel raha hai andar’: Gautam Gambhir gets firm backing as pitch debate intensifies

Gautam Gambhir gets firm backing as pitch debate intensifies

Were there "demons" on the Eden Gardens ground during the inaugural India vs South Africa Test? That is the current controversy in Indian cricket. Many observers blamed the management's choice of pitch for India's failure to chase a 124-run target against South Africa on Day 3.

According to India coach Gautam Gambhir the wicket was not unplayable, who also stated that the hosts got the pitch they desired. The visitors achieved their first Test victory in India since 2010 as the Indian batters succumbed to the South African spinners.

Harbhajan Singh and several former players blamed the choice of the pitch. However, Robin Uthappa expressed that Gambhir shouldn't be held accountable for the defeat.

"I saw a comment yesterday suggesting that I was defending GG. Yaar, coach thodi jaake khel raha hai andar (The coach is not playing out there)," Uthappa noted while speaking in a YouTube live session. "We are looking at the results and blaming a coach, but you have to look at the overall scenario. When they criticised Rahul Dravid, it didn't make sense to me. Scoring 20-30 thousand international runs is not easy. So, if he can be trolled, anyone can be trolled."

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Uthappa added bad pitches are penalised in domestic cricket, but not in international matches. "We had neutral curators come and control the kind of wickets we were going to prepare. Because if a game got over in two days, the groundsmen and association were reprimanded. But here, matches are getting over in two-and-a-half days. However, you say no to those types of wickets in the Ranji Trophy," he said.

"You are not encouraged to prepare turning tracks. Even if you are going to prepare a progressively turning track, where there would be a lot of turn on Day 3 and Day 4, you can actually develop batters who are equipped to play well against spin. We have been discouraged from doing that in the past 10 years, and you are taking the players to task for not playing spin well. How will they play if they don't play matches in those conditions?"