India focused despite D/N fuss

Ever since the new BCCI president Sourav Ganguly made it public that the second Test between India and Bangladesh would be a first-ever Day/Night Test match in the sub-continent, a lot of talk has revolved around the game in Kolkata next week.

The behaviour of the untested SG pink ball, the ability of the Indian spinners to counter the dew in the night, the change in mindset needed for the batsmen to cope with extra swing and movement the pink ball supposedly generates, the difficulty of sighting the ball in twilight, whether the ground-breaking decision by the new BCCI boss will herald a new era of regular day-night affairs, there have been plenty of discussions about the second Test at the Eden Gardens from November 22. The opening game at the Holkar Stadium against Bangladesh from Thursday is seemingly forgotten — much of the questions during Tuesday’s press conference also revolved around the pink ball.

The India team, though, appear focussed on the immediate job at hand despite the huge interest building up towards the pink-ball Test. Barring the batsmen receiving throw-downs with the pink ball (they alternated between the red and pink ball), the majority of the team on Tuesday practiced primarily with the conventional red ball. The spinners and pacers too bowled only with the red cherry and even the fielding drills were done with the same colour ball. Clearly, the team is concerned about the first Test rather than the one under lights.

“It’s not that difficult, you have to take one match at a time to stay in the present,” said vice-captain Rahane. “We had to practice with the pink ball (at the Chinnaswamy Stadium last weekend) because we were not playing T20Is or any other format. What we decided was to go and spend time at the NCA and if we can get pink ball session, it’ll be great. We decided that we’ll have at least two sessions with the pink ball. But as I said, it’s not difficult to stay in the present. Focus is on the Indore Test match first and then we’ll think about the Kolkata pink ball Test match. As a team, it is important that how we played against South Africa, it’s past now, it’s important to be in the present. Think about this match, think about the Bangladesh team. And after this Test match, we’ll think about pink ball Test match.”

India did trial pink-ball games for three seasons in the domestic circuit with the Duleep Trophy from 2016 before scrapping it this year after realising the management’s reluctance on playing day-night Tests. One of the reasons behind their reluctance being spinners finding it difficult to exert their dominance in cooler evening conditions, and the Kookaburra ball having a flatter seam as compared to the prominent one on the SG ball. The Kookaburra ball also became tough to grip once the dew kicked in.

Rahane weighed in his thoughts on the issue following his experience of practising with the SG ball in Bengaluru last weekend. “I think they played with the Kookaburra ball in Duleep Trophy. With SG ball I am not sure. We played against spinners in Bangalore and they were getting good revolutions on the ball. Yes, the shine is completely different to the red ball but its very hard to compare with SG ball and the Kookaburra ball. I've never played with the pink ball. And what I've heard from other people is that the Kookaburra ball is actually really easy for the batsmen but what we saw in Bangalore is that the SG ball was doing a bit for the fast bowlers.

“For spinners, it is difficult but it is very hard for me to say right now about Kookaburra and SG ball. Generally when dew comes into play, it becomes easy for the batsman. But I don’t know about the pink SG ball how it goes to play when dew comes in. We’ll have to wait and see. I’m sure we’ll get one evening practice session in Kolkata. We’ll get an idea of it when the dew comes in how the ball will behave.”