Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has squashed speculations that Gautam Gambhir should be sacked after India was stunned by 30 runs in the opening Test by South Africa at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Gambhir has come under the scrutiny after his comments on the Kolkata track.

India could not chase down 124 runs in the second innings as they were bowled out for 93 runs. Gambhir said they wanted this kind of a track and it had no demons. The former Delhi cricketer said his batters failed to show resistance in the final innings of the game.

Ganguly said it is difficult to get a positive result when you play on flat pitches as both teams can pile on the runs.

Ganguly said on India Today, “No, no, there’s no question of sacking out of Gautam Gambhir at this stage, but I think as a team, they need to get together and say to themselves that we will work hard to win Test matches because on flat pitches, it’s a lot harder because the opposition will bat, there’ll be big runs scored on the first innings of each team. And in India, surprisingly, you’ll see how the game changes quickly on day four.”

On the other hand, former Indian skipper said Team India has the bowling battery to take 20 wickets on a sporting pitch while citing the team’s good performance with the ball on the England tour.

He added, “So they have to be patient on that. As I said, they have the bowling attack to get 20 wickets as you saw at the Oval on the last day, as you saw in Edgbaston during that series (vs England), so they can do that as well. Swing comes into play in India with the ball getting old. So it’s just a mindset change. And you know, Gautam as a coach and Shubman as a captain did exceptionally well in England on good batting pitches. And I firmly believe that they can do well in India as well.”

India and South Africa will take on each other in the second Test at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati, from Saturday onwards.