Eden Gardens conditions could weaponise India, SA quicks

When you're about to play a Test match on an Indian pitch, the question to ask the curator isn't if it will turn but when. Spin, at most venues, is a given.

This is probably true of Eden Gardens too, where both India and South Africa are likely to line up with three-spinner attacks during the first Test that starts on Friday.

But from all pre-match indications, and the even, straw-coloured look it wore two days before the match, this Kolkata pitch looks like one that will only really start turning on day three or thereabouts, and possibly later given the mild weather the city is experiencing. All signs point to a classic Eden Gardens surface with the potential for big first-innings totals, which will mean a lot of work not just for the spinners but the fast bowlers too.

"I think, just from the early looks at the wicket, it looks a good wicket that should spin later," India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Wednesday. "So yes, it's not just going to be about the spin.

"Importantly, the batters as well, they have to bat really well on the first few days when batting should be slightly easier, and of course, both teams have got quality sets of fast bowlers. So I guess the challenge for both teams is the combinations we go in with.

"But certainly, we are going to be relying a lot on our seamers to make early inroads in the first couple of days. And I guess that's what you want from a really good Test wicket, where it's not just reliant on one of the facets being too important to the game. But I do think spin is going to be important on this pitch in the long run."

In the short run, on days one and two, it could well be the quicks that both captains look at as attacking weapons, to be unleashed when the conditions give them small windows of help. The new ball usually swings in Kolkata, aided by breeze from the Hooghly, which is only a short distance beyond the uncovered stands at the stadium's northwest. There could be early moisture in the first sessions, from the pitch perspiring under the covers. Reverse-swing is a possibility, given the practice pitches on the outfield and their roughening effect on the ball.

And history suggests that Eden Gardens is probably India's most pace-friendly venue. Among all the Indian grounds that have hosted at least five Tests since the start of 2010, it has the best fast-bowling average (27.44, with Bengaluru next-best at 30.04) and strike rate (47.1, with Bengaluru, once again, next-best at 53.6). And fast bowlers have taken 19.14 wickets per Test here, which is significantly better than Mohali's 13.80 in second place.

Now these figures are skewed by three outlier Tests. In 2016, a newly relaid surface offered India and New Zealand both seam movement and uneven bounce. In 2017, the desire to prepare for an imminent South Africa tour led India to prepare a greentop against Sri Lanka, in a Test match beset by wet weather. In 2019, India prepared another seaming pitch for a pink-ball Test against Bangladesh. Across those three Tests, fast bowlers picked up a combined 85 wickets.

The Eden Gardens pitch of 2025 looks nothing like those pitches, and will certainly not play in a similar way. But fast bowlers could still come into play, given how often they've made a telling impact even on normal Kolkata pitches. Umesh Yadav, playing just his second Test match, was India's most successful bowler with seven wickets in the 2011 Test against West Indies. In 2012, James Anderson and Steven Finn bowled match-shaping spells of reverse-swing in both innings in a historic England win. In 2013, Mohammed Shami made an eye-catching debut on his home ground, picking up match figures of 9 for 118 against West Indies.

"I think everybody talks about spin in India, but on both sides they've got world-class fast bowlers," South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad said. "And again, if history is to be believed, then there's always something for the fast bowlers at Eden Gardens. So I expect the fast bowlers on both sides to have an impact on the game, especially in the first couple of days, and for spin to come in slightly later.

"So, yeah, there's so many battles within the Test match, within this big war. Fast bowlers, you're talking [Jasprit] Bumrah, [Kagiso] Rabada, [Marco] Jansen, [Mohammed] Siraj. You've mentioned the spinners, and then the batting match-ups. It's certainly a mouthwatering contest, and if you're a fan of cricket, I know what you're going to be doing [over the next few days]. So there's so many exciting battles to look forward to, and you've got to earn the right to get to the spin by taking care of the fast bowlers properly."

Take care of the fast bowlers before you get to spin. If any team knows this about India tours, it's South Africa, whom India whitewashed 3-0 on flat pitches that called for bowlers of all kinds to get through a lot of work. And that result came down, perhaps even more than India's spin superiority, to their fast bowlers taking 26 wickets at 17.50 vis-a-vis South Africa's quicks taking 10 at 70.20. Seventeen versus seventy.

Rabada was on that tour, his second Test tour of India, and bowled better than figures of seven wickets at 40.71 would suggest. He bowled testing new-ball spells in all three Tests, but where he only picked up three new-ball wickets (first 30 overs) while drawing 43 false shots (14.3 false shots per wicket), Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma took a combined 19 new-ball wickets from 84 false shots (4.4 false shots per wicket). And India had the good fortune of winning every toss, batting big each time, and declaring late on day two to give themselves two cracks at South Africa's top order with the ball still new and their quicks still fresh.

It wasn't all luck, of course. Over the years, India's fast bowlers have tended to outbowl visiting counterparts in a few key respects including attacking the stumps more, harnessing reverse-swing better, and just having a more intuitive understanding of Indian pitches. They've also tended to have better spin-bowling support, which means they get longer breaks between spells, and tend to bowl more often in more favourable situations. In that series, Shami and Umesh were lethal for all these reasons.

This series begins with South Africa looking in better health than in 2019-20 in many respects. One of them is the depth of their pace and spin departments, and the experience Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer bring from both past India tours and recent subcontinent tours.

They could be dangerous opponents for that reason, and India will be more than wary, with the bruises from last year's 3-0 loss to New Zealand still to fully heal. This could be an exceedingly tight series if South Africa's sails can catch the winds of form and luck. And from their perspective, it couldn't begin at a better place than Kolkata.