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Marco Jansen lauds Guwahati track pretty much as good for batting after taking six wickets against India, highlighting effective short-ball tactics.
Marco Jansen picked up six wickets in India’s first innings (Picture credit: AP)
Star South Africa pacer Marco Jansen has said that the pitch in Guwahati is sweet to bat on and if one can play the short-pitched delivery well, they’ll go on to attain runs. Notably, Indian batters were undone by Jansen’s sensible effort on Day 3 of the Test, as he finished with six wickets in India’s first innings.
Jansen recognised during India’s first innings that there was little swing within the air and minimal seam movement off the track, prompting him to unleash a barrage of bouncers, a tactic that paid off on Day 3.
While Kuldeep Yadav had termed the Barsapara pitch as a ‘road’, Jansen gave a divergent view, calling it a ‘sporting one’.
“It’s a great wicket to bat on. There may be a great pace, good bounce. In case you play the short ball well, you’ll rating runs and in case you bowl well, you’ll get wickets,” Jansen said while talking to the media at the top of the day’s play.
An ignored aspect of the discussion was the preparation; how the practice pitches in Guwahati mirrored the actual match track, something that isn’t the case.
“The training facilities here were very much the identical or just like the playing wicket, which I feel may be very nice as a player because you’ll be able to form of prepare well. You may wrap your head around how the wicket might play and since of that, you’ll be able to maximise in your preparation,” Jansen said.
Of his six wickets, five, aside from Kuldeep, fell to short balls, as he showed the Indian bowlers what an efficient Plan B looks like on an otherwise unresponsive track.
“To be honest, the ball was not nipping as very like in Kolkata, so we needed to work out a plan. After I got my first wicket (Dhruv Jurel) with a bouncer, we said, ‘okay cool, allow us to see how long that is going to work for’ and yeah, it just got here off,” Jansen said.
November 24, 2025, 19:27 IST
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