Cheteshwar Pujara slams India after first Test defeat against Proteas

The home side were bowled out for 93 on a difficult pitch at Eden Gardens to go down by 30 runs against the Proteas, who claimed a first Test win in the country in 15 years.

Pujara is one of a host of players that called time on his Test career in recent times, along with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, but said the current side is should still be good enough to win at home.

"I don't buy this that India are losing at home because of transition. I can't digest that," Pujara said on JioStar.

"If you lose in England or Australia because of transition, it could be acceptable. But this team has the talent and potential.

"You look at the first-class record of all the players - Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill... Washy (Washington Sundar) batted at No. 3 in this game - all their records are so good.

"Still if you lose at home that means something is wrong. If you had played the same match on a good wicket, there were much better chances of (India) winning.

"How do you define Test cricket? On what kind of a wicket are your chances better of winning? On such tracks, your chances decrease and the opposition is at par with you.

"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."

India head coach Gautam Gambhir confirmed after the defeat that it was "exactly the pitch we were looking for" in a match that only lasted three days and no India batter scoring more than 39 across the two innings.

Pujara continued: "If you want to play on such tracks, your batters have to be prepared accordingly and it didn't look like they were prepared.

"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. If the Indian team wants such turning wickets where the ball turns from ball one, then the batters' approach will have to be different."

The defeat in Kolkata means India cannot win the series with the second and final match starting in Guwahati on Saturday.

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