India vs South Africa -'This pitch is not bad at all': Eden Gardens curator responds to pitch controversy

Contrary to expectations, South Africa emerged victorious in the first Test against India at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. On a pitch that turned drastically with alarming uneven bounce, the game barely lasted two-and-a-half days as the Indian batters fell into a trap that they had set themselves for the opposition.

If the 0-3 home series defeat to New Zealand last year hadn't woken them up, this defeat to South Africa should be the rude awakening that India's Test team needs. Batting skills in the longest format is a dimishing skill, more so with the DRS and nature of pitches these days. India's batters have had this weakness since a long while now and it is time that they resorted to producing sporting surfaces.

Meanwhile, Eden Gardens pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee quashed all the talk about the surface being a 'bad one'. Known for his brutally honest personality, Mukherjee stated that the pitch was tough but required batting smarts, something that he felt South Africa had a lot more than India in this fixture.

"This pitch is not bad at all," said Mukherjee in an interview to Times Now Bangla.

"I know everyone is questioning this pitch. Honestly, I know how to prepare a pitch for a Test. That's exactly what I did. I did it as instructed. I don't think about what others said. Not everyone knows everything. So I do my job with dedication, and I want to continue doing that in the future as well."

However, designing this kind of pitch wasn't in Mukherjee's plans. While he is known to make tracks of his own wish, the surface for the first track was made as per request from the Indian team, especially head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shubman Gill. At the post-match press conference, Gambhir had confirmed this as well.

After the second day's play was over, Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) boss Sourav Ganguly had already claimed that the pitch was prepared according to the Indian team's wishes. It was his method to defend the accusations against Mukherjee about the pitch. He also stated that this wasn't a surface worthy of international cricket.

While Gambhir's post-match quotes confirmed Ganguly's claims, Mukherjee chose not to comment about the CAB boss' verdict about the pitch.

"Look, I don't want to comment on what Sourav said. He also said that the pitch was given exactly as the Indian team wanted. Later, Gautam Gambhir also admitted that. So I don't want to comment on this. A good pitch was given. South Africa played intelligently there and won."