Mohammad Shami and Wriddhiman Saha are among India players, who will get a first-hand experience of day-night cricket with pink ball
when local giants Mohun Bagan and Bhowanipore Club meet in a Cricket
Association of Bengal's Super League final, starting on Saturday.
A
brainchild of former India captain Sourav Ganguly, the four-day final
will be a historic affair as it will provide a glimpse of what can be
expected of a pink kookaburra under lights in sub-continental
conditions.
If the experiment is successful, Ganguly's association
will stand a good chance of holding first ever Pink Ball Test in India
that Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is planning to hold.
The
spotlight will be on India pace spearhead and Mohun Bagan's Shami, who
will be the first in the team to have a 'feel' of the pink Kookaburra
ahead of the proposed first day-night Test against New Zealand in
October.
Not to forget Wriddhiman, who will face the challenge of
keeping wickets as well as batting against pink kookaburra under
possibly under floodlights.
Before the Duleep Trophy is played
under lights, the top Indian players will certainly refer to the
feedback from two of their teammates, who can provide them with
information.
One interesting fact is that Wriddhiman is no
stranger to pink kookaburra balls as he had the experience of playing in
an Emerging Series in Australia seven years back.
Wriddhiman had
kept against pink balls, green balls during that A series in Australia
back in 2009-10. Cricket Australia used those balls during the List A
matches on experimental basis.
Shami for one, is excited about the new challenge and is keen to adapt quickly.
"The
only change is the colour (of the ball). Obviously, it will be a new
challenge but as the experts are saying it's the future and we have to
adapt quickly," Shami said.
Shami also said that he will get a proper idea once he analyses whats the initial behaviour of the track.
"Have
to see how the pitch behaves initially. The ball will swing under
lights and will make sure it's not heavily in favour of the batsmen. It
will be an even contest between the bat and ball," he told reporters.
For
the record, two India stalwarts, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid have
played a Day/Night longer version game with pink ball for MCC during the
annual fixture against County Champions in United Arab Emirates.
The BCCI technical committee headed by Ganguly has already recommended the zonal Duleep Trophy to be Day/Night this season.
"It will give me some much needed match practice ahead of the Duleep Trophy. I'm looking forward to it," Shami added.
Ganguly
and his team will pray that the heavens don't open up with monsoon date
also clashing with the much-awaited club league final.
Showering
praise on Ganguly, Mohun Bagan coach Palash Nandy said, "This match will
go into history book. We could not have asked for more. All this could
take place only because of Ganguly and his great ideas. We thank CAB for
such a novel initiative."
While Shami will start with the new
pink ball, in batting Wriddhiman will lend solidity and experience along
with skipper Subhomoy Das and the in-form Joyjeet Basu, fresh from his
243, which knocked out East Bengal in the league stage.
Mohun
Bagan may be boasting of star studded duo in Shami and Wriddhiman but
the coach said they were not taking it easy against Bhowanipore Club,
the reigning first division league champions.
Mohun Bagan lost to
East Bengal to make a quarterfinal exit in the CAB First Division
two-day league but managed to win the two titles this season -- JC
Mukherjee Twenty20 and CAB Knock-out one-day tournament.
Bhowanipore
captain Writtick Chatterjee, an offspinner and no. 3 batsman, made
headlines this season claiming 6/0 against Mohammedan Sporting in their
First Division League match in April.
Chatterjee will hold the key
as it will remain to be seen how the ball behaves for the spinners, a
key to success in subcontinent conditions.
Bhowanipore coach Abdul Monayem is confident of putting up a fight against the heavyweights Mohun Bagan.
"Our
main strength is bowling and pink ball will certainly give an edge to
our pacers," he said about their three seamers -- Ayan Bhattacharya,
Ravikant Singh and left-arm youngster Geet Puri.

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