Cheteshwar Pujara Slams Transition Theory Behind India’s Home Test Defeats

The defeat against South Africa in the first test at Eden Gardens has brought the Indian team into hot waters. From ex-cricketers to media personnel, everyone is questioning the strategy of the Indian team that looked completely clueless against the spin attack of South Africa in Kolkata. The home team suffered an embarrassing defeat against the Proteas, as they were bowled out for just 93 runs in the second innings.

A former test cricketer of India, Cheteshwar Pujara, has now slammed the excuse of the Indian team, which says it is going through a period of transition. He said this is a very weak justification that holds no ground. Pujara emphasized that the team is currently playing in home conditions, so they should have dominated the opponents instead of getting caught in their own web.

"I don't buy this that India are losing at home because of transition. I can't digest that. If you lose in England or Australia because of transition, it could be acceptable. But this team has the talent and potential. You look at the first-class record of all the players - Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill... Washy [Washington Sundar] batted at No. 3 in this game - all their records are so good. Still if you lose at home that means something is wrong.” said Cheteshwar Pujara while talking to the media.

He then described the importance of playing a test match on a good batting surface. He said that if India had played the first test on a good wicket, the result could have been very different.

"If you had played the same match on a good wicket, there were much better chances of [India] winning.” said former Indian test cricketer, Cheteshwar Pujara.

He further explained that playing on poor wickets decreases your chances of winning. It basically diminishes your home advantage, forcing you to stand at par with the visitors.  

“How do you define Test cricket? On what kind of a wicket are your chances better of winning? On such tracks, your chances decrease and the opposition is at par with you. There's so much talent in India, even an India A side could beat South Africa. So if you say this loss is because of transition, it's not acceptable." said Cheteshwar Pujara.

Can’t Blame Batters for the Loss on Spinning Tracks

The former Test cricketer also said that batters do not have many chances of success on these kinds of surfaces. Playing shots on spinning tracks is always difficult, which is why both India and South Africa struggled to put big scores on the board throughout the test match.

"You can't just blame the batters on this kind of a wicket because firstly if you want to play on such wickets, your preparation has to be different. Gauti bhai said they asked for this kind of a wicket but it wasn't easy to bat on. Look at the stats of both teams - only one batter scored a fifty so it shows it wasn't a good wicket.” said Cheteshwar Pujara.

He added that playing on such tracks require more preparation, and the Indian team certainly looked unprepared to handle the spin challenge of South African bowlers.

"If you want to play on such tracks, your batters have to be prepared accordingly and it didn't look like they were prepared. On such wickets, you have to play different kind of shots, like rely more on sweeps, play a little positive, try to move the scoreboard.” said Cheteshwar Pujara.

“But there was an expectation that this wicket would be a bit decent, it would have some turn, and you can bat well and score runs. But this wicket wasn't like that. If the Indian team wants such turning wickets where the ball turns from ball one, then the batters' approach will have to be different." Cheteshwar Pujara.

India and South Africa will now meet in the second test at Guwahati on November 22. It would be interesting to see how India will bounce back from the last defeat, because South Africa are gearing up to dominate India once again in the next contest.