BSS, Kolkata :
Humiliated in the first match in Indore, Bangladesh dare create a history when they play their maiden day-night Test against India in Kolkata, beginning from today (Friday). GTV will telecast the match live.
The historic Test will kick off at 1:30pm Bangladesh Standard Time and the Indian Army paratroopers will fly into the Eden Gardens to hand over a pink ball each to the two captains just before the toss.
Bangladesh, which lost the Indore Test by an innings and 130-run margin just three days ago, still with confidence, vastly due to the fact that the pink-ball cricket remains an unknown territory for both the sides.
The passion was palpable as the tickets for the first three days have already been sold out. Kolkata, the ‘City of Joy’ has gone for pink to mark the occasion a memorable one.
This will be followed by the ringing of the customary Eden Bell by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The CAB will also felicitate the team members of Bangladesh-India first ever Test in 2000, a game where Sourav Ganguly, the incumbent BCCI President made his debut as Test captain.
The members of Bangladesh’s inaugural Test, apart from Aminul Islam Bulbul and Al Shahriar Rokon, have already reached.
The city had different places coloured in pink seems to be the colour of the day while the 22 storied TATA building and another 42-storied building will have 3-D mapping.
So the match has historic value. India could feel some advantage because most of their players played with pink ball in the domestic circuit. Bangladesh’s only pink ball experience in domestic circuit was way back in 2013 National Cricket League (NCL), but the memory of that match has already become blurred. Both Bangladesh and India had got just four days to practise with pink ball before the game.
But the fact is that the most of the Indian players for Test squad were not in the T20 squad and hence they could take in intensive preparation for day-night Test in India when Bangladesh were playing a three-match T20 series against India. The overall situations suggested that Indians are better prepared for the Test than Bangladeshi players. And they are better equipped too.
Since the pink ball is believed to favour the seamers, India could feel pleased as they are boasted with the best pace attack at this moment. Pink ball is believed to offer bounce and swing, a thing that Indian pacers could muster well and that they proved it in Indore. Indian spinners also could get less support from the pink ball, due to dew at night, but at day part of the game, they could be effective.
History also suggests that Bangladesh are no match for India in longer version format. Even though they won five ODIs and a maiden T20 victory against India in Delhi in this series, Bangladesh lost eight Test matches after playing 10 with the closed-door neighbours. The two matches that they drew was courtesy to rain.
In their Test history, Bangladesh played 116 matches, winning just 13 and lost 87, amongst which 41 was by innings margin. The rest of the 16 matches were drawn. India meanwhile played 540 Tests, winning 156, lost 165 and drew 217. They have tied one match.
Bangladesh still feel confident because there is always vast difference between match practice and match preparation, a thing which the India management also admitted. So a fifty-fifty situation still lies there. The Tigers basically want to capitalize on it.
Meanwhile, after some discomfort with pink ball, Bangladesh looked to have got over the syndrome as they came into terms with it at nets of Eden Gardens ahead of their day-night Test match.
“They all enjoy the SG ball for a start. So it has been enjoyable to bowl with,” said Bangladesh spin bowling consultant Daniel Vettori.
Bangladesh played with two pacers in Indore, but it is highly likely that they would go with three-pronged pace attack at Eden, with Al-Amin Hossain coming to the group. A spinner would play between Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz and the latter would have advantage for his batting skill. As uncapped Saif Hasan who was highly likely to replace Imrul Kayes in opening position was ruled out following his finger injury, the batting line up would remain more or less same.
