Eden Gardens pitch set to bring reverse swing in the picture with the black-soil pitch already devoid of any live grass.
In the first Test between South Africa and India, which begins on November 14 in Kolkata, reverse swing may be crucial. The surface at Eden Gardens, where a Test match will be played for the first time in six years, will offer strong bounce but should begin to slow down by the halfway point.
Four days prior to the Test, there is reportedly no live grass on the black-soil surface, and by the time the game starts, there should only be a few millimetres of grass. It is anticipated that the Eden Gardens surface will not be a docile track like the one at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, where India triumphed by seven wickets on the fifth day, even though the second Test of the West Indies series, which was played in Delhi, was also a black-soil pitch.
The first game of the two-match series was played in Ahmedabad on one of India’s greenest strips in recent memory, with four millimetres of living grass on a red-soil field with good bounce. West Indies suffered a crushing innings defeat, lasting 44.1 and 45.1 overs in their two innings, and the game ended in three days.
It is anticipated that the Eden Gardens surface will quickly get rougher, allowing the fast bowlers to use reverse swing. Another positive statistic for the quick bowlers there is that over the past 15 years, Kolkata has had the highest wicket percentage (61%) with 97 wickets in six red-ball Test matches.
The lower temperatures in the first hour of the morning and the last hour of the evening, which may facilitate lateral movement, are another element that is likely to be advantageous to seamers. When all of these elements are taken into account, the toss may not be crucial. Additionally, because of the black earth, Eden Gardens’ outfield is among the fastest.
Following their recent series-leveling Test victory over Pakistan in Rawalpindi, South Africa travelled to India. Before coming to India, South Africa’s three slow bowlers—Senuran Muthusamy, Keshav Maharaj, who won Player of the Match in Rawalpindi, and Simon Harmer, who took the second-most wickets in the series—performed well in the Pakistan series, which was played on spin-friendly surfaces.
This will be South Africa’s fourth Test match at Eden Gardens, where they won their first visit in 1996 but lost the last two in 2004 and 2010. The last Test match held there was in 2019, when India won a pink-ball match against Bangladesh under the lights. The most recent red-ball Test match played in Kolkata was a tie with Sri Lanka in 2017.