New Delhi:
The India vs Bangladesh Test at Eden Gardens will be a historic one on November 22. This will be the first time that a Pink Ball Test will be played in the sub-continent. It will be the first time both India and Pakistan will be playing a Day-Night Test. After years of opposition, India have finally agreed to play the Pink Ball Test under the leadership of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, who is a fan of Day-Night Test. During the practice session at the Holkar stadium in Indore, some members of the Indian cricket team were seen practising with the Pink Ball. In the press conference, skipper Virat Kohli had his take on the pink ball. Kohli stressed on two important things while facing the pink ball.
"I hadn't played with the pink ball before. I was given an opportunity to try and I wanted to. So that was my mind-set behind playing with the pink ball. You require extra concentration to pick the pink ball suddenly when you're playing with the red ball. It was to work on the reflexes a little bit as well. Because when you play with the red ball in the net and you arrive at the pink ball, it gets very difficult to pick, which can be the case in the game as well. To get into that zone was the reason behind it," Kohli said.
In addition, Kohli added that in order for the pink ball to be effective, the pitch must be lively and that dew will be an intriguing factor. "If the pitch has extra help for the bowlers, then they will be in the game, especially fast bowlers throughout the course of the Test match. I don't know how the old ball behaves because with the dew and the lacquer going off, it will be interesting to see how much the old ball does. With the pink ball having enough life in the pitch will be very important factor," Kohli added. The skipper is focused on delivering a solid performance in the Indore Test and is not too focused on the Pink Ball Test in Kolkata.
Recently, Kohli had made a statement that Test matches needed to be played in five centres in order to boost the popularity of the longer format of the game. When asked about whether he does not want to see Indore hosting a Test, Kohli once again clarified.
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"I said that because if you look at the ratio, a stadium like Indore attracted a decent crowd but a lot of others didn't. And it can't be that one stadium gets games and the others don't. Indore is the kind of place where if you play a T20, you won't find a single empty seat. And in One-dayers it won't be empty at all. It's not about taking away matches from them. Just a vision about how we can get together and raise Test cricket," Kohli said.
