Singing the pink blues

The Bangladesh team were originally scheduled to play the fourth day of the first Test at the Holkar Stadium in Indore yesterday, but having lost the match by the third evening the Tigers were instead practising with the pink ball yesterday afternoon to prepare for the second Test in Kolkata to be held from November 22.

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman tested the pink ball during the start of the session. Dropped for the first Test due to poor form, Mustafizur will have to come up with new answers to get back into the side, much as the team will need to find ways to thwart India’s bowlers from running riot once again. Only this time the challenge of the moving ball is going to be much more acute.

It is being said that the teams -- neither having played a day-night Test -- will start on equal footing when things move to Kolkata following two days’ practice. However, India have a lot more experience with the pink ball.

10 of the India side have already played pink-ball matches in domestic cricket, although skipper Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav are not among them. Bangladesh’s only pink-ball foray in the domestic circuit came in 2013 and none of the current squad members were part of that. India’s wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav has 17 wickets in pink-ball cricket in the Duleep Trophy. A wrist-spinner could be handy with the day-night match expected to be affected by dew.

Bangladesh’s finger-spinners Nayeem Hasan and Taijul Islam went for some huge sixes as the evening wore on yesterday. Liton Das sent one straight onto the glass prison of the press box. With pink on the horizon, things could turn blue in the Kolkata challenge.