"One of Ben Stokes' has beens has got vocal about the pitch" - Sunil Gavaskar's scathing dig at former England captain after IND vs SA 2025 1st Test

England v India - 5th Rothesay Test Match: Day Four - Source: Getty
Sunil Gavaskar. (Image Credits: Getty)

Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar took a dig at former England skipper Michael Vaughan over his comments on the Eden Gardens track for the recent Kolkata Test. The pitch came into focus as batters struggled to contain the uneven bounce and spin, with the Test finishing in two and a half days.

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India failed to chase down 124 in the fourth innings, with Simon Harmer picking up eight wickets in the match, four in each innings, to fashion a 30-run victory. Commenting on the pitch on the second day of the Kolkata Test, Vaughan tweeted:

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Writing in his column for Sportstar, Gavaskar stuck to his opinion from an earlier interview, where he claimed that the pitch was nowhere near unplayable, saying that Temba Bavuma's approach was the perfect way to play on it. However, Gavaskar didn't shy away from criticizing Vaughan for getting vocal about the surface. He wrote:

"Even for this Test match at the Eden Gardens, one of Ben Stokes’s has-beens has got vocal about the pitch simply because 15 wickets fell on day two. I have been a has-been longer than this has-been, but I can say with conviction that the pitch was tough, not impossible to bat on. Temba Bavuma showed that with his short back-lift and soft hands, keeping his bat speed just slow enough so that even if the ball took the edge, it would not carry to the close-in fielder.
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"He also showed admirable patience and great temperament, even when the ball went past the outside edge. In essence, it was proper Test match batting and not what modern batters do the moment they find it is not a flat pitch and the ball is doing something off it."

After India's defeat in the series opener, Vaughan also stated that the hosts deserved to lose for dishing out a deck like that. For the unversed, the term 'has-beens' was used by Ben Stokes, to respond to Vaughan and other ex-England captains' criticism over their preparation for the Ashes series.

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"When India toured Australia last year, 17 wickets fell on day one in Perth" - Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar. (Image Credits: Getty)
Sunil Gavaskar. (Image Credits: Getty)

Gavaskar, who represented India in 125 Tests, reminded that pitches aorund the world have seen wickets fall in clumps on a single day of a red-ball fixture but only Indian tracks come under focus. He added:

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"By the way, when India toured Australia last year, 17 wickets fell on day one in Perth. In Adelaide, 11 fell on the first day and 14 on the second. In Sydney, 11 wickets fell on day one and 15 on day two. Did the has-been have any complaints or caustic comments about those pitches? Absolutely not. Ten wickets on day two at Leeds. In Birmingham, eight wickets fell on the second, third and fourth days.
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"At The Oval, 15 wickets fell on the second day, but of course, unsurprisingly, not a word of criticism about the pitches in Australia and England. Lots of wickets fall in a day in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but nary a word of sarcasm. That is left for India and Indian pitches."

Meanwhile, India will be desperate to level the two-Test series against South Africa in the second Test in Guwahati.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava
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