Kolkata wicket was different but this was road: Kuldeep on lifeless Barsapara pitch

Guwahati, Nov 23 (PTI) India's premier spinner Kuldeep Yadav on Sunday compared the 22-yard strip at the Barsapara Stadium to a "road" due to the benign nature of the surface that allowed South Africa's lower-order batters to take the team's first-innings score to 489 in the second Test.

Asked about his opinion on playing in Kolkata, where batters struggled and here in Barsapara where it became a nightmare for the spinners, Kuldeep's reply was laced with sarcasm.

"Kolkata ka wicket toh alag thaa. Yeh to pura road tha (Kolkata's wicket was different and this was a whole road). So it's challenging and that's why it's called a Test wicket," said Kuldeep, who was the pick of the India bowlers with figures of 4 for 115 in 29.1 overs.

It will be interesting to see how BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia takes this statement as this is the first ever Test match being held at his home venue, and one of the senior players hasn't exactly been too kind with his assessment of the track.

However, Kuldeep did maintain that one needs to show fighting abilities to counter adverse conditions.

"It is not always about domination but it is also very important how you come back on a good batting surface. It was a difficult wicket for the bowlers because I didn't feel that there was a lot of help in this wicket." For Kuldeep, it is imperative that one moves on quickly and not stress oneself thinking about the nature of the track.

"Even for fast bowlers it didn't seem like a lot of help, but yeah, this is Test cricket and you should enjoy it. You should enjoy, learn more and the more you mature, you shouldn't think too much about the wicket. You should go there and play. Next Test, there could be a better wicket, so no complaints." He was quick to point out that after the opening session on the first day, when some underlying moisture was still at play, there was no help for the slow bowlers in the last five sessions.

"Personally I felt yesterday first session, there was a bit of moisture in the wicket, so I got a little bit of turn there in the first session. After that it was very good to bat on," he said.

"There wasn't any turn yesterday as well as today. Today was much better to bat on because I hardly got any turn. Even me and Jadeja we have been talking about that," he said, and one could gauge the frustration in his voice.

Kuldeep was very satisfied about how India kept things tight in the first session with South Africa getting only 69 but he always knew that with wickets intact, they would have gone after the bowling.

"Marco Jansen took chances and batted well. And this happens generally when the partnerships are long and you are in a good stable position compared to the other team. Then you want to capitalise and the wicket was good for batting." While he bowled 29.1 overs in all, on the second day, Pant gave him only 12 overs but he didn't make a huge deal out of it.

When asked why didn't he bowl more on the day, he was cheeky: "I mean for that I have to be the captain." But, on a more serious note, he felt that he was given enough overs.

"I am very happy with whatever number I bowled. We got 4-5 bowlers more and everyone bowled really well, so you have to keep changing and you can't just keep bowling from one end, so I haven't had any issue with that.

"I bowled 30 overs and 30 overs is good for any wrist spinner," he quipped. PTI KHS KHS AH AH