IND vs SA 2025: ‘Return to Virat Kohli era Indian pitches’ – Former opener after defeat at Eden Gardens

South Africa. Debarchan Chatterjee/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer suggested that the current Indian team management should urge the curators to make pitches similar to the ones during Virat Kohli‘s reign as captain. His statement came after India’s disappointing 30-run defeat to South Africa in the first Test, which ended in three days.

The surface at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, which hosted a Test match after six years, was criticised for having too much turn. However, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir admitted during the post-match press conference that it was the kind of pitch that they asked for and slammed his batters for not being able to apply themselves better at the crease.

Jaffer said that the team hasn’t learned from the mistakes they made during their crushing 0-3 series whitewash against New Zealand at home in 2024. He recalled the 2016-17 home season under Kohli’s leadership and said that the management must look to play on similar pitches once again.

“Looks like we haven’t learned our lesson from NZ series loss. The gap between our spinners and opposition spinners reduces on pitches like this. We need to go back to classic Indian pitches, like the ones in 2016-17 season when Virat was captain and Eng and NZ toured,” wrote Jaffer on his ‘X’ account.

India lost a Test match at home to South Africa after 15 years. The Asian giants will want to bounce back strongly when they face the World Test Champions in the second Test, scheduled to be held at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati from Saturday, November 22.

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