India & Bangladesh All Set to Make Pink -Ball Test Debut

After winning the T20I series 2-1, Team India is all set to play their first-ever Pink Ball Test match against Bangladesh starting from November 22, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. This will also be Bangladesh’s first ever-pink ball Test as well. 

India is unbeaten in their last 11 Test series at home and they would like to get their 12th win in this historic Test match. India confident from their T20I series win over their opponents looks ready and prepared for this Test series. Skipper Virat Kohli returns to the team as does Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and India’s famous pace attack. 

In the pre-match press conference, Virat hailed the current Indian Test pace attack consisting Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav as the ‘best in the world’. 

With already 240 points in the World Test Championship, India are sitting head and shoulders above the rest of the teams in the competition. New Zealand with 60 points are the next best team in the championship so far. As far as Bangladesh is concerned, this will be their very first match in the championship. India thus looks poised for another easy Test series win, however, skipper Kohli said that they are not ready to take Bangladesh lightly and will play the series with utmost sincerity. He also sounded confident regarding India’s approach in the series. 

“If you ask me, we [India’s fast bowling attack] are right at the top. I won’t even count ourselves in the [top] 3. These guys deserve it. As a captain when we started off, that was the conversation, that was the one thing in my mind that I really wanted to see happen. Batting was never an issue, spin was never an issue. After Zak and all the stalwarts went away, we were thinking how can we get back to the top, have the ability and the firepower to pick 20 wickets” Kohli said. 

If the Indian camp is all about confidence before the Test series, the Bangladesh camp without their senior players Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan have a few areas to focus and playing against spin is one of them. 

Despite the likes of Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim being a part of the Test squad, the Bangladesh team management appointed Mominul Haque to lead the side in the series. 

Sounding confident in his post-match presser, Haque said that his team is not short of match practice ahead of the start of the Test series. However, he said that the absence of Shakib and Tamim will be a concern for his team.

I don’t think there is any lack of preparation. If you look into our squad then you will see eight of the players have played quite a few four-day games recently. I have played eight to ten four-day games in last five-six months. Shakib bhai is equal to two players. So absence of Shakib bhai and Tamim bhai will be like missing three players.” said the Bangladesh skipper. 

As far as team news is concerned, both teams will see the return of Test specialists in the side. Indore’s Holkar stadium is the venue for the first Test. India has won the only Test match being played there so far against New Zealand with Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli scoring centuries.

Here’s the probable playing XI for both teams for the first Test. 

India: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami

Bangladesh: Imrul Kayes, Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque (C), Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Liton Das (wk), Mohammad Mithun, Mehidy Hasan, Taijul Islam, Abu Jayed, Ebadat Hossain