India, Bangladesh to play first Day/Night Test at Eden Gardens

Kolkata, October 29

The Indian cricket team will play its first ever Day/Night Test here against Bangladesh, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said, ending days of speculation surrounding the game. 

The Test is scheduled to be held at the Eden Gardens from November 22 to 26 and will be the second game of the two-match series. The development ended days of speculation after Ganguly first proposed the idea to the Bangladesh Cricket Board, which faced resistance from its players and sat for multiple meetings to convince them.

“It’s a good development. Test cricket needs this push. I and my team were bent on it and thanks to Virat Kohli also, he agreed,” Ganguly said. There are plans to invite India’s legendary Olympians like Abhinav Bindra, MC Mary Kom and PV Sindhu and felicitate them for their contribution to the country’s Olympics movement during the match. Ganguly wants the Eden Gardens’ Day/Night Test to be an annual affair. The Indian cricketers have for long objected to playing with the pink ball, asserting that sighting the ball becomes a problem after it gets old. 

Both teams don’t know what to expect: Bangla coach

Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo welcomed the decision to play their maiden Day/Night Test against India, saying both teams’ inexperience of playing with pink ball might give the visitors an edge over the hosts. “As a coach I think it’s a great opportunity. I don’t think India played a pink ball Test before, we too haven’t played a pink-ball Test either. It’s going to be a massive occasion at the Eden Gardens. It will be a new experience for both the teams. So we’re very excited,” Domingo said. “We know India are a good Test team. Probably they are the No. 1 team in the world, but there will be uncertainty among the players of both the teams of playing a pink-ball Test. Both teams don’t quite know what to expect, so it could work in our advantage, could work in our favour,” he added. — PTI

Coming soon, says recovering Bumrah 

 Mumbai: India’s pace sensation Jasprit Bumrah is “coming soon”, as he tweeted with a picture of himself working out at a gym. Down with a back stress fracture just before the South Africans toured India, Bumrah is back on his toes. Not only is he doing light running and warm-up exercises, he is set to undergo assessment at the National Cricket Academy under the watchful eyes of Nitin Patel, the national tam’s physio. Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane is back to training. The Indian Test vice captain posted a video on his social media accounts of him going through the paces. “After spending some quality time with the family, it’s time to get back at the office,” he said in a post.