With India getting to take on Bangladesh in the two-match Test series, the talk of the town is the second Test match in Kolkata. India and Bangladesh will be playing first day-night Test in India at Eden starting from November 22. According to Ajinkya Rahane, the ball will have extra lateral movement compared to the red ones.
Sessions with Rahul Dravid
Rahane, along with Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja, had a couple of practice sessions with the pink ball as a build-up to the pink-ball Test. The training was supervised by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Director Rahul Dravid in Bengaluru and Rahane shared how much enjoyed the sessions. “What we found out after the practice session was that the (new) pink ball does a lot more than the red ball. You have to play slightly late and close to your body. We had a word with Rahul bhai as he was also there.”
Rahane shares experience and thoughts
He shared his insights on the same and talked about the lateral movement of the ball. “I didn’t play pink ball [before] so this is my first experience. The lateral movement is big, actually a lot more than the red ball. I’m sure we’ll get two good practice sessions in Kolkata. Adjustment wise I’m sure everyone will adjust very quickly. It’s just the mindset, technical skills will play a role. Mentally if you can adjust to the pink ball, then it’ll be good.”
Rahane who had no experience of playing with pink SG ball hopes to get enough practise before the match in Kolkata. He explained time will tell how dew is working as a major factor while using the pink 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 on 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 when the dew comes in how the ball will behave.”
He further added, “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.”
