Cheteshwar Pujara delivered a rare on-air outburst after India’s shocking 30-run defeat to South Africa in Kolkata, rejecting the “transition” excuse and labeling the home loss as unacceptable. The usually calm former India batter had a meltdown on Star Sports, questioning both the team’s preparation and pitch strategy.​

Transition Excuse Rejected

Pujara pulled no punches in dismissing suggestions that India’s defeat stemmed from the ongoing transition phase following the retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin.​

“I don’t agree with this. Transition ki wajah se Bharatiya team Bharat mein haare, woh digest nahi ho sakta (The Indian team losing in India because of the transition cannot be digested),” Pujara stated emphatically during the Star Sports discussion.​

“India lost in England and Australia due to the transitional phase, which is still acceptable. But the talent and potential that India has, look at the first-class records of Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar and Shubman Gill. Despite those first-class records, if we lose in India, it means that something is wrong,” he added.​

Talent Pool Argument

The 37-year-old, who played 103 Tests for India, emphasized that the country’s deep talent pool makes home defeats inexcusable. “There’s so much talent in India, even an India A side could beat South Africa. So if you say this loss is because of transition, it’s not acceptable,” Pujara argued.​

His point struck at the heart of Indian cricket’s current crisis—despite having technically gifted batters with stellar domestic records, the team collapsed to 93 all out while chasing just 124 runs.​

Pitch Strategy Criticized

Beyond rejecting the transition narrative, Pujara questioned India’s reliance on rank turners—a strategy that backfired spectacularly at Eden Gardens. “India had a better chance to win this Test if the match had been played on a good wicket. How do you define Tests? On which wickets will your percentage to win be higher? That percentage drops on such wickets and the opposition becomes equal to you,” he explained.​

The Eden Gardens pitch offered sharp turn and variable bounce from day one, with only one half-century scored across the entire match and 189 being the highest innings total. Pujara suggested such conditions neutralize India’s talent advantage rather than enhance it.​

Preparation and Approach

Pujara also criticized the batters’ preparation for extreme turning conditions. “You can’t just blame the batters on this kind of a wicket because firstly if you want to play on such wickets, your preparation has to be different. If you want to play on such tracks, your batters have to be prepared accordingly and it didn’t look like they were prepared,” he said.​

“On such wickets, you have to play different kind of shots, like rely more on sweeps, play a little positive, try to move the scoreboard. But there was an expectation that this wicket would be a bit decent, it would have some turn, and you can bat well and score runs. But this wicket wasn’t like that,” Pujara added.​

Fourth Home Loss in Six Tests

The defeat represents India’s fourth loss at home in their last six Tests, including the 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand on turning tracks at Pune and Mumbai earlier in the year. That sequence has reignited debates about Indian batters’ ability on surfaces that offer turn—traditionally their strength.​

The loss also dropped India to fourth position in the World Test Championship standings, behind Australia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. The 3-0 defeat to New Zealand had already cost them a place in the WTC final, and this result further jeopardizes their qualification hopes.​

Gambhir’s Contradictory Stance

Pujara’s comments directly contradicted head coach Gautam Gambhir, who stated after the match that it was “exactly the pitch we were looking for”. The disconnect between Pujara’s analysis and Gambhir’s pitch philosophy highlights the confusion surrounding India’s home strategy.​

With the second Test starting November 22 in Guwahati, India must regroup quickly or risk surrendering the series to South Africa—an outcome that would have been unthinkable just a year ago when they dominated at home.