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The Indian cricket team will play its first ever Day-Night Test match, in Kolkata, against Bangladesh next month, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly said , taking a path-breaking decision within a week into his nine-month tenure.
The Test is scheduled to be held at the Eden Gardens from November 22-26 and will be the second game of a 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.
“The BCB has confirmed and we are having a pink-ball Test. It’s a good development. Test cricket needs this push. Me and my team were bent on it and thanks to Virat (Kohli) also, he agreed,” Ganguly said.
Bangladesh’s South African coach Russell Domingo conceded in Dhaka that there are concerns about how the match will pan out but the team has decided to accept the change and explore new avenues. The match will start at 2pm (IST) and will comprise a Tea and Dinner break.
“We think it’s a great opportunity. I don’t think India has played a pink ball Test before. It’s a massive occasion at Eden Gardens against one of the best teams in the world,” Domingo said.
“We are looking forward to that challenge. There are some challenges as we will not have a lot of time to prepare but it’s same for India. I don’t think they have had a day-night Test match. So it will be same for both teams,” he added
“Since it’s pink ball, both teams will be close to each other. Sometime change is the best,” the former Proteas coach said.
