Dawn of the Pink era

The patriotic songs from yesteryear Bollywood movies blaring through speakers may have sounded quite incongruous to the occasion, but a gigantic pink ball overlooking the sprawling Eden Gardens was reassuring.

The walls of the iconic stadium are adorned by banners and hoardings with shades of pink while the pillars inside the stadium are draped in the same-coloured cloth. The giant screen is framed in pink as are the identity cards issued to employees and volunteers of CAB. Pink is going to be the theme for the length of the second Test match between India and Bangladesh.

Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president and the man behind India’s maiden Day-Night Test, is leaving no stone unturned to make the event a memorable experience. A full house is anticipated on each day of the action that is pregnant with suspense and an equal amount of excitement. While there have been a sizable number of D/N matches to understand a few patterns, there is still the fear of the unknown. And those apprehensions would have only been reaffirmed following India’s first full-fledged practice session under lights here on Wednesday.

Skipper Virat Kohli alluded to them on Thursday at the press conference where he spoke about difficulties in spotting the pink ball while batting and fielding under lights. While there are challenges posed by the make itself, conditions may compound players’ problems, primary among them being the dew. With winter well and truly on in this part of country, the evenings are going to witness heavy amount of dew which is going to make the bowlers’ job, especially that of spinners, tougher which is what Kohli emphasised upon.

Another big hurdle would be the number of hours that will be split between day and night. Usually, the longer summer days in Australia and England ensure more play under natural lights or even in western or southern parts of India. In the east, however, the sun begins to set in by around 4.30 pm which means more action under artificial lights. And that’s not good news for the batsmen. This perhaps explains as to why out of 11 D/N Tests so far in different parts of the world, only five Tests have gone into the fifth day (between Pakistan and West Indies in Dubai in 2016) while the rest have lasted from 2 to 4 days.

Interestingly, spinners, quite contrary to perception, got amongst wickets in the Dubai Test. Yasir Shah from Pakistan claimed a fifer while his West Indian counterpart Devendra Bishoo bagged an eight-wicket haul. What’s notable here is that both are wrist spinners and if one were to take some clues from India’s ‘nets’ on Thursday, it is possible that R Ashwin may not figure in the scheme of things.

The off-spinner was conspicuous by his absence at team’s practice while left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja restricted himself to batting. Kuldeep Yadav, the lone wrist spinner in the squad, bowled alongside Hanuma Vihari, a part-time off-spinner. India would definitely look to bolster their batting and including Vihari for Ashwin seems a distinct possibility. That gives them six batsmen excluding stumper Wriddhiman Saha. The three seamers – Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav – are shoe-ins and it remains to be seen who occupies the lone spinner’s slot between Kuldeep and Jadeja.

With each practice session, players are finding out different challenges of the pink ball and it would have, therefore, been ideal for India to play a D/N match after all their Test regulars had played at least one first-class game under lights. No doubt the practice sessions are essential, but nothing prepares a player better than the experience gained in a match. While there is little one can do to reverse things when the man, who runs the show, is determined to make it a reality, what may have helped the team to get on the same page is the opposition in Bangladesh who are a fast-improving limited-over side, but some distance away from matching the Test standards.