Proteas expect fast bowlers to have an impact at Eden Gardens

In the past two years the Proteas have moved away from letting talk about pitches dominate the build-up to a Test match, so whatever Eden Gardens provides from Friday will hold no concerns for Temba Bavuma’s men.

The Indian media, meanwhile, has as usual tried to glean as much as possible, with clues being sought from the body language of the home side’s coaching staff, the captain Shubman Gill, who was pictured prodding the surface, and their interactions with the venue’s groundsman.

Conversations between some of the Proteas and Sourav Ganguly, newly reelected as president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, which oversees Eden Gardens, were interpreted as some kind of insider info being passed on to the tourists.

The man in charge of preparing the pitch for the first Test, which starts on Friday, Sujan Mukherjee, was cornered by one news outlet and reportedly revealed the surface would be sporting and would assist spin. Local headlines have included the phrase “rank turner”, but based on what they’ve seen and their own analysis of the venue, the Proteas aren’t expecting the ball to turn square from day 1.

“There are no demons, nothing will surprise us,” said Shukri Conrad.

The Proteas coach described it as a “typical Kolkata wicket. I didn’t expect anything different.

“There will be something in it for the quick bowlers. When we practiced on it [on Tuesday night], we found the ball started swinging. That might not be pitch-related but overhead-related. It will spin. The question is: how early in the match will it spin?”

Between Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Mohammad Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, the criminally short two-match series features high-quality quick bowling and, along with the more balanced nature of the surface, means batters will have “to earn the right to get to the spin by taking care of the fast bowlers properly”.

Eden Gardens is hosting its first Test in six years but historically it has been a venue where the seam bowlers have been integral to the outcome. When South Africa last played there in 2010, their expectations of a “rank turner” after they’d won the first Test in Nagpur were misplaced.

Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma shared five wickets in the Proteas’ first innings, in which they slumped from 218/1 to be 296 all out, and then Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra claimed seven wickets between them in the second innings to earn the Indians a dramatic victory late on day 5.

“I expect the fast bowlers on the two sides to have an impact on the game, especially in the first few days. Spin will come in slightly later,” said Conrad.

As for Ganguly’s visit, he said that was most likely because of the former Indian captain’s high-profile role in the SA20 later this year.

“He’s the boss at Pretoria Capitals and they broke the bank for Dewald Brevis. Kesh is also there. I think it was that. When an icon like Sourav is around, you want to glean whatever you can from the great man. I don’t think he was giving away too much.”