India's head coach Gautam Gambhir on Sunday backed Eden Gardens' under-fire curator while lamenting his batters' inability to "absorb pressure" and find a way to score runs on the challenging surface in the opening Test against South Africa. Proteas successfully defended 124 to humble India by 30 runs, having bowled the home team out for 93 in their second innings to wrap up the match under three days. The result continued the worrying trend of home reversals that has seen them lose four of their last six home Tests and nine of the 18 matches under Gambhir.
"It was not an unplayable wicket, there were no demons," Gambhir said at the post-match media interaction.
"If you are willing to put your head down and if you have a solid defense, if you have a temperament, you can definitely score runs," he said.
The match saw 38 wickets (as Shubman Gill was retired hurt) fall in just eight sessions and out of them the pacers had a share of 16, while spinners accounted for 22.
"We keep talking about turning track, but if you look at the 40 wickets, majority of the wickets went to seamers," Gambhir said in his assessment.
"So, if you are out on the turning track or seamers. I don't think it was a tough wicket. It was a wicket where your technique can be judged, your mental toughness can be challenged, and more important than that is your temperament.
"Because if you are looking to grind, if you are looking to bat long, then you can make runs. But if you are in an attacking mindset, or if you try to play attacking cricket, then it is difficult.
"All the people who have played good defence, whether it is KL Rahul, Temba or Washington, all of them have made runs." The focus before the match was on curator Sujan Mukherjee as the pitch was not watered for more than a week and kept under covers in the evening.
Sujan supportive
Gambhir said these are exactly the conditions they wanted and said Mukherjee was "very supportive".
"This is exactly the pitch we were looking for. The curator was very, very helpful and supportive. This is exactly what we wanted and this is exactly what we got. When you don't play well, this is what happens.
"Yes, it might not be a wicket which is going to be very flamboyant where you can play those big shots. But if you are willing to put your head down, definitely it is a wicket where you can score." Trailing 0-1, there will be no margin for error for Gambhir's men as they look to win in Guwahati and level the two-Test series, while reigning World Test Champions South Africa will be eyeing to bag their second Test series win in India, and first after 2000.
Asked whether the pitch narrative would be similar in Guwahati, Gambhir said: "We've always said that the turning wicket should be where there's very little turn on day one so that the toss doesn't become an important factor.
"We've never said that we want to play on a bad wicket or we want to play on rank-turners. Ultimately, if we had won this test match, you wouldn't even be talking about this pitch.
"So, my point is, we need to improve mentally and skill-wise rather than discussing the wicket. Because wickets are the same for both teams.
"So, whatever we get in Guwahati, we've got the guys to deliver in any condition and on any surface as well."
Gambhir refused to question their technique or temperament, though he hinted repeatedly at a lack of match awareness within the young group.
"Obviously, it was tough because we always knew that we were one down. Obviously, Shubham wasn't there and then losing two before lunch. Obviously, literally, we were three down.
"But we always felt that if we can get those partnerships, if we can have a 50 runs partnership or two 40 runs partnership, we will be in the game.
"And we were at one stage having that kind of a partnership as well when Dhruv and Washi were batting and then when Washi and Jaddu were batting."
"You win as a team, you lose as a team. It's not right on my part to give ratings on my part. It's not fair to blame the batters they tried everything possible.
"They gave everything they had. But yes, we still need to keep getting better if we want to play on these harder wickets," he added.
One of the biggest talking points was Rishabh Pant's decision on the third morning to not start Jasprit Bumrah from the more threatening Club House End as he began much later from the High Court end.
"There is no hindsight in Test cricket," he said, adding that India's tactical calls were "spot on", irrespective of the final result.
Of the team's seven Test wins under Gambhir, four have come against lowly Bangladesh and West Inidies at home.
"We should not compare different eras. There was no DRS. There are a lot of youngsters in this dressing room. Thers is not much experience in batting from top to bottom, I think more than the skill, in Test match cricket not only skill is required, but mental toughness is also required, he said.
"Because in Test cricket, if you are not able to absorb pressure, because no matter how much turning the wicket is, the first 10-15 minutes are tough.
"Once you see off that, you get used to the pace of the wicket and things start getting easier. So, I think more than the skill, I think it's the ability to absorb pressure." He also gave an update on the status of Gill's availability for the second Test.
"He's still being assessed. The physio will take a call today." PTI TAP TAP AH AH
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