Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly feels that Mahendra Singh Dhoni should not insist for a "spin-friendly" wicket at the Eden Gardens and instead bring in pacer Ashok Dinda for Harbhajan Singh in the third Test, beginning from December 5.
"I think Dhoni and the team management should not insist again for a spin-friendly wicket as it would only create problem for the Indian batsmen," Ganguly was quoted in a Times of India report.
"I want to see Dinda in the line-up in place of Harbhajan Singh. Playing three spinners don't work at all, which is showed clearly in Harbhajan's bowling of 20-odd overs. I hope MS will balance the attack (at Eden)."
Preparing a turner at the Eden would only do harm to India, Ganguly believed.
"England spinners bowled better and beat them with the pace whereas the Indian spinners, barring Pragyan Ojha, resorted to bowling slow. Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook played them well resorting to backfoot play,” Ganguly further quoted in the report.
Meanwhile a report in the Indian Express says that former captain Sunil Gavaskar criticised the performance of Indian spinners during the humiliating 10-wicket defeat against England in the second Test here, saying allowing the visitors to score over 400 runs proved costly to the home side.
"The England spin duo did a very good job but what were Indian spinners doing. They allowed England to score 50-odd runs more in their first innings and that too at run-a-ball,” Gavaskar was quoted in the report.
"The Indian batsmen also did not do well in the Test and they should have been a little better in their application. But more than the batsmen, the spinners had failed to do their job," he said.
Gavaskar said he was not surprised at captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni insisting on a turning track for the third Test in Kolkata also but re-iterated that the ploy of preparing rank turners had boomeranged on India.
"I am not surprised at his comments because he had already said it earlier that he wants turning tracks. But the question you should ask him is, how his slow bowlers are going to make amends. If they continue like in the third Test also, the result is also certain,” he further added.
"England have two very good spinners in Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann and they will exploit the conditions and the ploy will backfire again. So, if you want to persist what can one say," Gavaskar said.