The India vs South Africa Test series was considered very important for both the teams, as it would take them above each other in the ICC World Test Championship points table. The match looked quite a struggle between both the sides.
India have completed two series in this WTC cycle of 2025-27. They reached England for the first time to play a 5-match Test series against England and the Shubman Gill-led Indian team managed to draw the series with the score of 2-2.
They then defeated West Indies 2–0 at home and maintained strong resolve in the red ball format with the South Africa series at home. The Proteas, who are the defending WTC champions, started the cycle with a 1-1 draw against Pakistan.
India vs South Africa 1st Test full of batting struggles at Eden Gardens
India vs South Africa 1st Test started with the Proteas collapsing in the first innings, which looked normal against the dominant Indian attack on their home ground. However, the real turning point came when the Indian batsmen also struggled in their batting innings.
The Eden Gardens pitch was never designed for batting, as the pitch had unconventional bounce, a heavy amount of turn and support for both seamers and spinners. Some cricket analysts also criticized CAB for such an unconventional pitch.
However, India knew in advance that the pitch would be dominated primarily by spinners, as a result of which they included 4 spinners in the team, although Washington Sundar was used very limitedly. Of the 38 wickets that fell in the game, 22 wickets were taken by the spinners.
India failed to chase 124 runs in the second innings
This will definitely be one of the most humiliating days in the history of Indian Test cricket. The Gautam Gambhir era has not been the golden time of red-ball cricket for India, and after their captain’s dismissal, India missed the target by one wicket.
The faltering of India’s prestigious team, which came out to chase the target of 124 runs despite falling behind by one player, looks completely disappointing. India lost a close match in England this summer, and now they have lost another game in a very short span of time.
Despite resistance from Washington Sundar and a late cameo from Axar Patel, the Indians fell well short of the target and lost the game by 30 runs. The ICC World Test Championship points table has been updated, with South Africa placed second.
Here is the updated ICC World Test Championship points table
| drink | Team | played | won | lost | Drag | score | PCT |
| 1 | Australia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 100 |
| 2 | South Africa | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 66.67 |
| 3 | Sri Lanka | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 66.67 |
| 4 | India | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 52 | 54.17 |
| 5 | Pakistan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 50.00 |
| 6 | England | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 43.33 |
| 7 | bangladesh | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 16.67 |
| 8 | west indies | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | new zealand | , | , | , | , | , | , |
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