Fresh from their victory over New Zealand in the first Test at Kanpur, India will be looking to seal the series with a win in the second Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The Test will be India’s 250th at home and the 40th at Eden Gardens. Eden Gardens is an iconic venue which hosted the 2nd ever Test on Indian soil played between India and England in January 1934. Overall, the Eden Gardens has hosted 39 Tests, the most by any ground in the 83 year old history of Tests being played in India. India has won 11 Tests at Eden Gardens which ranks third after Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi and the M.A Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai for most Test wins that on home soil.

There is no doubt that India appear to be peaking at the right time with almost every player in the team making some contribution in the win at Kanpur. India has played only 2 Tests against New Zealand at Eden Gardens and both have have resulted in draws. In fact, India hasn’t played a Test against New Zealand at this venue in more than 50 years.

A lot of famous Indian players have exemplary records at the Eden Gardens. VVS Laxman has scored 1217 runs in 10 Tests at the Eden at an average of 110.63 with 5 centuries and 3 fifties. Laxman played what is considered to be one of the finest ever innings by an Indian when he scored 281 against Australia in March 2001. Mohammad Azharuddin has scored 860 runs in 7 Tests at the hallowed venue at an average of 107.5 with 5 centuries and 2 fifties. Among the bowlers Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble have taken the most number of wickets by Indians with 46 and 40 wickets respectively.

Among the current lot Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin have noteworthy performances at the Eden Gardens. Rohit Sharma made his debut against West Indies at Eden Gardens in November 2013 and scored 177 in 301 balls with 23 fours and a six. In addition, to his wonderful Test record at the Eden, Rohit scored the highest score in the history of ODIs at this venue when he scored 264 off 173 balls with 33 fours and 9 sixes against Sri Lanka in November 2014. In the last edition of the IPL, Rohit scored 84 not out off 54 balls studded with 10 fours and 2 sixes against the Kolkata Knight Riders to guide the Mumbai Indians to a 6 wicket victory. Ashwin has a stupendous record with both bat and ball at this venue. He has scored 240 runs at a batting average of 120 with 1 century and fifty each. He has also taken 14 wickets at the Eden.

So, both current form and pedigree point to India putting up another good performance at the Eden Gardens. They would look forward to seal the series in the second Test itself and not leave anything to chance by waiting till the third Test at Indore. In the first Test, most of the wickets were taken by the Indian spinners. While the pitch at Kolkata is not expected to favour the spinners as much as the one at Kanpur, history shows that spinners take more wickets than the pacers at Kolkata.

India will be looking to leave no stone unturned to put in a good performance at Eden Gardens and win their 9th Test series against New Zealand on home soil. They have the added bonus of regaining the number 1 rank in Tests if they win.