Eden Gardens. The theatre of dreams. A hallowed ground where nothing is impossible and impossible is nothing. Where VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid and Harbhajan Singh ripped the formbook to shreds in 2001, where magic hangs in the air even if the venue is grappling to build progressively on the past.
It was at Eden Gardens that, back in February 2010, Harbhajan conjured five wickets, the last of them in the final quarter of an hour on the last day, to extend India’s grip on the No. 1 Test ranking and consign South Africa to an innings loss despite Hashim Amla’s twin centuries. No one would have even imagined at the time that it would be the start of a stunning sequence that would leave the Proteas winless in India in their next seven Test outings.
SA’s WTC conquest
The first Test at this iconic stadium since November 2019 is also South Africa’s first game in this country for six years. In 2019, during South Africa’s last visit, Rohit Sharma took his initial steps as a Test opener; Rohit is now retired from the five-day game, while the visitors have gone from strength to strength, evidenced by their stirring conquest of Australia in the final of the World Test Championship at Lord’s in June.
Armed with the confidence that comes from besting the rest in the marathon that the WTC is, Temba Bavuma’s side will approach the first of two Tests, beginning on Friday, with belief and well-founded optimism. For the first time since forever, they have a gun spin attack — Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer and Senuran Muthusamy — to complement their pace riches helmed by Kagiso Rabada, which in part has resulted in a black soil surface unlikely to crumble into a lottery-ticket raging turner.
Especially at this time of the year, the ball tends to go a fair bit in the air towards the last session; there will be help at the start of each day too for the quicks and while the turn may not be alarming to start with, spinners will relish the track from potentially early on Day Three. All of this means, given India’s now-settled line-up and South Africa’s new-found status as Test champions of the world, a classic battle is in the offing.
Both sides welcome key leaders back from injury. Bavuma, whom coach Shukri Conrad called the best batter in the team, proved his return to fitness from a calf strain with a half-century for South Africa ‘A’ against India ‘A’ on Sunday. In Bavuma’s absence, South Africa came away with a creditable 1-1 scoreline from Pakistan last month, and are determined to rewrite history at the city where they began their reintegration with international cricket in 1991.
Pant to replace Reddy
Rishabh Pant, the effervescent deputy to Shubman Gill, has recovered from the broken foot sustained in Manchester that kept him out of India’s last three Tests. Pant will replace Nitish Kumar Reddy in the XI that beat West Indies in Delhi last month, with Dhruv Jurel slotting in as a specialist batter following his twin tons against South Africa ‘A’ in Bengaluru last week, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate all but confirmed.