Bangladesh team adopts a new method to deal with the pink ball ahead of Kolkata day-night Test

Preparations for the upcoming historic day-night Test match between India and Bangladesh to be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata are in full swing. After the first Test match at Indore ended in three days resulting in India’s win by an innings and 130 runs; both the teams opted to stay back and practice under lights.

Bangladesh team has to prove their competence at this level as they have not won a single Test match against India either at home or away and the Indore loss was a big one for them to swallow. They were expected to put up a fight against the no.1 ranked Indian team despite missing Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, but apart from Mushfiqur Rahim, no other batsman could do much as they were bowled out for 150 and 213.

Bangladesh players practice by dipping pink balls in the water to counter the bounce

With dew expected to come into play after 7 pm, both the teams had their own way of tackling the problem of playing with a wet pink ball. Bangladeshi team went a step ahead and started practicing using wet balls. “The spinners can skid the ball and there could be a bit of bounce. Whatever we saw, the ball was bouncing a bit. We have practiced with the wet ball. Even our pacers may do that [in Kolkata] to see if the movement is less and if they can also get the ball to skid,” Mehidy Hasan was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

He also revealed that coaches have instructed the spinners to keep a check on the Indian run-rate during the innings. This can result in batsmen coming under pressure if the runs do not come easily and in going for runs, the bowlers may get some easy wickets.

“The pace bowlers will continue to bowl by dipping the ball on the water in the coming days. I think we can adapt in the coming days. Maybe it will skid a little more when it is wet. Spinners can get to skid the ball. There’s also likely to be bounce and turn,” Hasan further added.

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