IND vs SA 2025: 'Gambhir took all the blame for Eden Gardens pitch, didn't want to throw curators under the bus' - India's batting coach

Published - 20 Nov 2025, 18:32 IST | Updated - 20 Nov 2025, 19:03 IST

India's batting coach, Sitanshu Kotak, defended head coach Gautam Gambhir amid the criticism that has been directed at the latter following South Africa's 30-run win at Eden Gardens in the first Test.

India were outplayed by the Proteas on a rank turner, bringing back nightmares of last year's 0-3 whitewash at the hands of New Zealand. Fans and experts have lambasted Gambhir for India's failures in the red-ball format. However, Kotak said that the players, as well as the other members of the support staff, could have also done 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.

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.

Pant will do well as captain in 2nd Test: Former AUS skipper

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.