"India are caught in the middle" - Former all-rounder's huge statement on Eden Gardens pitch ahead of IND vs SA 2025 1st Test

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has opined that Shubman Gill and co. have a serious conundrum regarding the choice of pitch for the upcoming first Test against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, scheduled to begin on Friday, November 14. The Men in Blue have leaned towards sporting pitches in recent times, but will also be tempted to maximise home advantage in a crucial series as far as the 2025-27 World Test Championship (WTC) is concerned.

The Men in Blue are set to play their first Test at the Eden Gardens in six years, and the first conventional red-ball Test in eight years. In the couple of domestic matches that the iconic venue has hosted in the 2025-26 domestic season, the norm has been relatively low-scoring affairs, with the 300-run mark being breached just once in eight innings.

With South Africa boasting a solid spin bowling unit, who ran the show during their recent tour of Pakistan, India will have to think twice before putting out a rank turner, despite their own sheer prowess. Whereas the Proteas also have a formidable pace unit led by Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen, which prevents India from going entirely in the other direction.

Irfan Pathan stated that the hosts will have to decide which route they have to take as far as the pitch is concerned, since it could have a major impact on the result.

"The first challenge for India would be whether they should go for a turning track or pitches suiting the fast bowlers. When India defeated South Africa in 2015, they made rank turners where R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picked up over 30 wickets in the series. Whereas, in 2019, an attempt was made to make more sporting pitches, and it became good for batting," Irfan Pathan said on his YouTube channel. "But now, India are caught in the middle. They have a good seam bowling attack in Bumrah, Siraj, and Akash Deep. On the other hand, there are good spinners too, Axar, Kuldeep, Jadeja, and Sundar, all are there. But the problem is, we are playing in early winter, so there won't be many dry surfaces in the eastern part of the country. Even the Eden Gardens curator has said that it will be a sporting pitch," he added.

Eden Gardens chief curator Sujan Mukherjee revealed that the Indian team management requested a little bit of turn from the surface, but nothing like a rank turner pitch. Meanwhile, Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President Sourav Ganguly also confirmed that the home team has not put in any specific request for a rank turner.

Irfan Pathan reveals his preferred Team India playing XI for IND vs SA 2025 1st Test

The former player did not spring any major surprises, going along the expected lines to name a relatively unchanged playing XI from Shubman Gill and co's previous home Test.

He excluded all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy to accommodate the returning Rishabh Pant. Spin all-rounder Axar Patel also misses out as Pathan chose for the same spin trio of Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav.

"KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah," he said. "It looks like Sai Sudharsan is growing a bit, it looks like he is settling in now at No.3," he concluded.

The Men in Blue have a dominant record against South Africa on home soil, recording 11 wins out of 19 matches, with three drawn affairs. The Proteas have not registered a Test win on Indian soil since 2010.

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Edited by Gokul Nair