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5 Talking Points from India’s 1st Pink Ball Test

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5 talking points from India's 1st Pink ball test

India’s first pink-ball Test, which was played against Bangladesh, lasted for only 7 sessions. But it was nothing short of a spectacle. Sourav Ganguly left no stone unturned to make this historic test memorable. He and the BCCI were successful in creating a buzz not just in the city but around the world. It was the second Test of the two-match Test series, which India won by an innings and 46 runs and also won the series 2-0. Let’s look back at the 5 major highlights or talking points from India’s first pink-ball Test.

1. Another day in the office for the Pace trio

With the amount of success the Indian pacers have had in this home season, everybody was eager to watch the pace trio bowl with the pink ball.

The Eden Gardens surface was relaid a few years back and this relaying has made it one of the most pacers’ friendly surfaces in the country. And with an extra layer of grass covering for the pink ball Test, it was like icing on the cake for the pacers.

That’s why Mominul Haq’s decision to bat first raised many eyebrows. Either way, it would hardly have made any difference in the end result, as Bangladesh batsmen had no answers to the discipline shown & movement extracted from the pitch by Ishant Sharma & company.

In the post-match interview of the 1st Test at Indore, Ishant Sharma had jokingly complained about his lack of luck, compared to that of Shami. He had said that he and Umesh did the same things which Mohammad Shami did, but failed to get as many wickets as Shami.

This time, however, he did not have any such complaints. He was beaming with happiness as he got wickets in heaps in each of the innings. He took a 5-wicket haul in the 1st inning and again took 4 wickets in the second inning of India’s 1st pink-ball Test.

If the movement of the ball was tough to deal with, for the Bangladeshi batsmen, things got even more difficult for them, with the bounce from the pitch.

Indian pacers made excellent use of these conditions. This was evident from the numerous blows on the helmet that the Bangladeshi batsmen received from the short deliveries bowled by the Indian pace trio.

In the end, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammad Shami became the first-ever Indian pace combo to take all the wickets of the opposition team (19 wickets, as Mahmudullah was retired hurt in the 2nd innings) in a home victory.

2. Twilight session is the new morning session

One of the major talking points about the day/night Test was the behavior of the pink ball in the twilight period.

And as expectedly it moved a lot in the second session.

Virat Kohli told in the post-match press conference, “I spoke to Sachin Paaji on the evening of the first day. He made an interesting point that with the pink ball you will have to treat the second session as morning session when it starts getting darker and the ball tends to swing and seam more.”

Numbers also back that statement, as the only time Bangladesh could compete for a little while was during the second session on day-2. They triggered a little collapse on either side of the 2nd new ball. India could add only 58 runs more but lost 5 wickets in that session.

3. Pink Ball? His bat says, so what?

White, Red or Pink ball. Kookaburra, Dukes or SG ball.

These things don’t bother Virat Kohli anymore, as once again he put on a masterclass and became the 1st Indian to hit a hundred in Pink ball Tests.

Right from the first ball, hundred was looking inevitable for Virat Kohli. His flowing cover drives and elegant on-drives down the ground satisfied all the cricket lovers, as always.

With the 20th Test hundred as a captain, he went past Australia’s Ricky Ponting. Now only Graeme Smith (25) is ahead of him in this list.

Kohli also completed 5000 Test runs as a captain and achieved this milestone quicker (86 innings) than anybody else.

4. Review of Pink SG ball

It was the first-ever Test match with a pink SG ball. The sample size to make any conclusions on the pink SG ball is not big, as, in the whole test match, only India’s innings could go beyond 80th over.

So how much does it replicate the red ball in terms of behavior and performance? We cannot say for sure, as of now.

A stronger opposition team than Bangladesh would have given a better idea about the pink ball performance.

But one thing is for sure: there was hardly any sign of reverse swing.

Ashwin and Jadeja bowled only 7 overs in the match so we have to wait for another day/night Test match, to understand the ball’s behavior from the spinners’ point of view.

The amount of dew in the last session could have made a big impact if it was contested between two evenly matched sides.

From the fielding point of view, Virat told an interesting thing that due to an extra lacquer on the pink ball, it tends to fly off the bat.

Though the Indian cordon took some superb catches with the ball, you could clearly see that the late movement was making wicket-keeper’s life tougher.

5. Attendance

The central idea behind playing the Day/night Test was ground attendance. In that regard, Eden Gardens passed that test quite comfortably with an official attendance of more than 40,000 on each of the first two days.

Kohli told in a press conference that when he walked in to bat, he felt as if it was an IPL game. Buzz in the ground was tempting him to hit out from ball one.

Will other cities or even Kolkata, on the next occasion, be able to replicate these attendance numbers, we again need to wait and see? But ground attendance-wise, this 1st pink ball Test was a big success.

Okay! So these are the five main talking points from India’s 1st Pink Ball Test. I hope you enjoyed watching the Pink ball Test match. Thanks for reading this article. Share your opinions about this historic Test in the comments section below.

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