Bangladesh's spin bowling consultant Daniel Vettori of New Zealand said on Wednesday that early sunset in Kolkata could pose a big challenge for his team's batsmen during the "twilight" hours of the coming day-night Test cricket with pink ball against India starting on Friday.
While some Indian players from India have played the pink-ball game in domestic cricket, Bangladesh's only experience with the pink ball was a one-off day-night four-day match in six years ago but none of the current team players was part of that fixture. "I think the pink ball is relatively normal in the day. The challenge will be what portion of the Test is played under the lights. Obviously, the sun sets quite early here. I think at 4:30 pm.
That will be the time we will see the pink ball come into play," the former New Zealand captain said. Vettori has never played a day-night Test but from experience he feels batting during twilight period will be challenging. "My experience is only from watching on TV and it seems to do a little bit more during twilight dusk. So, I think that's going to be a big sighting period of the Test match. That'll be the period of the Test the teams will try to do technically a few different things. I think that the final one and a half session would be very interesting," Vettori said.
Vettori, however, said Bangladesh pacers are equally excited including left-arm Mustafizur Rahman who sat out in Indore. "All fast bowlers are really excited. Coming to grips with the balls, I think the SG pink ball is a bit different. Most guys have limited experience of Kookaburra pink ones. I think there's a lot of excitement and optimism around,” he said. The first-ever day-night Test involving India and Bangladesh begins on November 22.
