IND vs SA: Amid criticism, Gautam Gambhir finally finds a supporter! Sunil Gavaskar steps in with“124 should have been chased with at least five wickets in hand” statement

Gautam Gambhir denied blaming the pitch and instead blamed batters after the first IND vs SA test.

Amid the heavy criticism for his comments on the Eden Gardens pitch, the Indian Cricket Team head coach Gautam Gambhir has finally found a supporter in Sunil Gavaskar. The batting great echoed his comments, saying that it was a collective batting failure and 124 was easily chaseable. 

In what was a shocking batting performance, India failed to chase down 124 runs against South Africa in the first test of the series at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Although, they were batter short due to the injured Shubman Gill, they went on to face a 30-run loss with the pitch misbehaving. 

The Eden Gardens pitch offered a lot of help to bowlers. There was a sharp turn and uneven bounce for spinners and not just India but South Africa batters struggled too as the 200-run mark wasn’t crossed in any of the four innings across the match. 

After India lost, head coach Gautam Gambhir denied blaming the pitch. He openly mentioned that it “was exactly the kind of pitch they want to play on” and also criticised the batters, saying that they failed to show good temperament against spinners. 

Totally agree with Gautam Gambhir, 124 was chaseable on this pitch – Sunil Gavaskar

Gautam Gambhir faced the wrath of fans and experts for his comments. However, Sunil Gavaskar came out in favour of the head coach. He pointed out that it was a failure of batting against the brilliance of Simon Harmer. Speaking to India Today, he said: 

“Totally agree with Gautam Gambhir. 124 was chaseable on this pitch. There was no question about it. A lot of people are talking about what the pitch was doing, but if you had a look at what Simon Harmer was doing in an over, how many of his deliveries were turning? He was mixing it up really well. He bowled straight and got the odd one to turn.”

Gavaskar added that the Eden Gardens pitch ‘was not a vicious turning pitch’ and batters needed to bat like a five-day match and not a 50-over match or a Twenty20. He concluded by saying that 124 should have been chased with at least five wickets in hand.

“So, it was not a vicious turning pitch. It was a pitch on which you needed to bat as if you were playing a five-day Test, not a 50-over match or a Twenty20 where, after three dot balls, you try to play a break-out-of-jail shot.”

“That’s the issue. One hundred and twenty-four should have been chased with at least five wickets in hand with the kind of batting line-up India had,” he said.

The focus now turns towards the second test between India and South Africa, which will be played from November 22 at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati.

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