The Indian bowlers toiled hard on what was a flat pitch at the Barsapara Stadium on Day 2 of the second Test between India and South Africa. Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav called the pitch a road after the end of the second day.
Indian star spinner Kuldeep Yadav called the pitch of the Barsapara Stadium a ‘road’ after the bowlers toiled hard on Day 2 against South Africa. The Proteas bossed the second day of the contest in Guwahati after putting up 489 on the board with Senuran Muthusamy scoring a hundred and Marco Jansen making 93.
Kuldeep was asked about his opinion on playing in Kolkata and in Barsapara. The spinner replied, “Kolkata ka wicket toh alag thaa. Yeh to pura road tha (Kolkata’s wicket was different and this was a whole road). So it’s challenging and that’s why it’s called a Test wicket,” said Kuldeep, who was the pick of the India bowlers with figures of 4 for 115 in 29.1 overs.
Meanwhile, the spinner stated that the bowlers need to fight and show their abilities to pick wickets. “It is not always about domination, but it is also very important how you come back on a good batting surface. It was a difficult wicket for the bowlers because I didn’t feel that there was a lot of help in this wicket.”
He feels that the players must learn from the experiences in Test cricket. “Even for fast bowlers it didn’t seem like a lot of help, but yeah, this is Test cricket and you should enjoy it. You should enjoy, learn more and the more you mature, you shouldn’t think too much about the wicket. You should go there and play. Next Test, there could be a better wicket, so no complaints.”
“Personally, I felt yesterday’s first session, there was a bit of moisture in the wicket, so I got a little bit of turn there in the first session. After that, it was very good to bat on,” he said.
“There wasn’t any turn yesterday, as well as today. Today was much better to bat on because I hardly got any turns. Even I, Jadeja and we have been talking about that,” he said, and one could gauge the frustration in his voice.
India finally bowled South Africa out for 489 and have begun their batting. The hosts ended the day on 9/0 after 6.1 overs with a trail of 480 more.