Sitanshu Kotak, India’s batting coach, has supported head coach Gautam Gambhir following South Africa’s 30-run victory at Eden Gardens in the first Test.
The Proteas outplayed India on a stiff turner, bringing back memories of last year’s 0-3 defeat at the hands of New Zealand. Fans and commentators have blamed Gambhir for India’s failings in the red ball format. However, Kotak stated that the players and other members of the support crew could have handled things differently.
“Everyone is talking about Gautam Gambhir. No one is saying that the batsmen, the bowlers or the support staff could have done things differently,” Kotak said during a press conference on Thursday.
Kotak also stood up for the under-fire chief curator at Eden Gardens, Sujan Mukherjee, who is being criticised for the amount of turn the pitch had. The 53-year-old said that the team management didn’t expect the track to start spinning so prodigiously from Day 2 onwards.
“When we play a Test at home or travel abroad, every home team plays to its strengths. Ever since I became the batting coach, we have opted for spin-friendly tracks in India. We always hoped that a match goes on four days at least, and the ball should turn a bit since spin is our strength. In the last match, as well all saw, the pitch was a dusty and was also crumbling a bit. That was unexpected,” Kotak said.
We thought that the spinners would come into play properly from the third day. Even the curators didn’t expect that. Seeing that much turn on the second day is not normal. It probably happened because the top layer was dry and the pitch underneath was hard since it was rolled a lot,” he added.
Maybe some people individually have agendas: Sitanshu Kotak
Gambhir said after the match that the curator had given him exactly the kind of pitch he asked for. However, Kotak mentioned that the two-time IPL-winning captain stated this to save the curators from facing flak.
“Gautam took all the blame for the pitch in the last match. He simply said that we had requested for such pitch as he didn’t want to throw the curators under the bus,” Kotak said.
The former Saurashtra head coach opined that an agenda sometimes drives the criticism received by Gambhir and the team members.
“Maybe some people individually have agendas. Good luck to them, but it is very bad,” Kotak mentioned.
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