IND vs BAN | Delighted India's D/N Test journey begins at Eden Gardens, states Virender Sehwag
Former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag is extremely happy that India will play its first-ever D/N Test at the Mecca of Indian Cricket - Eden Gardens. He believes that there is no better place than this to begin a new chapter in the history of Indian cricket and hopes that India will win comfortably.
India and Bangladesh are all set to play their first-ever D/N Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata from November 22-26 and former batsman Virender Sehwag believes that playing with the pink ball will be a different challenge altogether for the batsmen to deal with. He shared his experience when he played a pink-ball match and feels that the bowlers will have an advantage going into the test match.
"I played only one pink-ball game in my career and that was MCC versus the County champions. One particular thing is that when the sun sets the ball starts to swing more and there might also be problems in sighting the ball. So that is the time where the bowlers will get more help and the batsman will have to play carefully," Sehwag told former teammate Zaheer Khan in a video chat on Cricbuzz.
"If you are set then that time can be negotiated easily else it is difficult. When I was the captain I used to keep my best bowlers fresh for bowling in this period because the chances of getting the batsman out are more," he added.
Generally, the pitch seems to be fresh in the morning which means that the bowlers have a chance to take early wickets and get the ascendency in the game and so the batsman might believe that a late start to the D/N Test might work in their favour as batting in the afternoon is easier. But Sehwag told that Eden Gardens has a typical breeze during the afternoon time which helps bowlers and thus believes that batting will be difficult to start with and that the batsmen will have to get their eye in and play patiently.
"The pink-ball Test will be played at the Eden Gardens where there is always some help for the bowlers in the period just before Tea and just after tea. Since the game will start at 1 pm which is around that time only, the new ball can be difficult to negotiate for the batsman even if they feel that batting is easier in the afternoon than in the morning," Sehwag asserted.
Bangladesh were rolled over by India in just under three days in the first Test in Indore as India won by an innings and 130 runs. While Mayank Agarwal starred with the bat, the Indian fast bowlers put on a show of absolutely magnificent bowling to bamboozle the Bangladesh batsmen and barring Mushfiqur Rahim no batsman really showed any promise. Sehwag thus believes that it will be really difficult for Bangladesh to provide a tough challenge to India.
"It will be very difficult for Bangladesh to compete against the number one Test side in the form of India who have won in Australia and competed in England. To take 20 wickets they will need a pitch which will assist the bowlers a lot but that also means that their batting line-up might falter faster than the Indian batting line-up because their batting isn't as strong and so I feel this will be a 12th successive series win for India."
The Eden Gardens has witnessed many iconic moments in Indian cricket like the 2001 Test against Australia where India won the Test match miraculously to turn the series on its head. Sehwag thus feels really happy that a new chapter in Indian Cricket's history in the form of D/N Tests is beginning from the Eden Gardens.
"The D/N Test was a [possibility only because Sourav Ganguly is the BCCI President as many times earlier the proposal of D/N Test was put forward which was rejected by other board presidents. I am delighted that India's D/N Test journey begins at Eden Gardens because it is the Mecca of Indian cricket and so I feel that there is no better place than this to get off to a great start."
0
0
0
0
0
0
Comments
Sign up or log in to your account to leave comments and reactions
0 Comments