Eden's brief 'Test' and India's long lessons

Cricket, in its oldest and most demanding form, has always prided itself on revealing the character of teams and the temperament of players. At Eden Gardens over the past two and a half days, it revealed something more troubling: a surface prepared with intention, yet surrendered by the very side that sought its favour. Forty wickets and 594 runs in a match of such brevity tell their own staccato tale — one of miscalculation, misjudgment and misplaced confidence.

It began with a surface that bore the hue of ambition but little of its substance. Whoever asked for this pitch had imagined demons for the opposition and comfort for the hosts. What emerged instead was a track that betrayed India’s batting and played into the hands of a more disciplined, more thoughtful visiting attack. In the e