Cricket
Mohammad Isam in Indore 4y

'Trying to cover as much ground as possible with pink ball' - Mehidy Hasan

Bangladesh in India 2019-20, Cricket

Bangladesh want to get as much practice as possible with the pink ball in time for the Kolkata Test. This much has been evident from their training routine and intensity in the two days following their three-day defeat by India in the first Test in Indore.

The focus has been specifically to train in the twilight zone, when the sun goes down and the floodlights begin to take full effect. At the Holkar Stadium on Monday, they went a step further by trying to simulate different possibilities, including dipping the ball in water to try and adjust to the possibility of bowling with a dew-wet ball.

While Sunday was an optional training session, the entire team was in attendance on Monday, as they spent three hours at the centre wickets. Head coach Russell Domingo put them through longer-than-usual slip catching drills - wicketkeeper Liton Das, Imrul Kayes, Shadman Islam and Mohammad Mithun - were in the cordon, an indication that they are perhaps not going to tweak their batting order much for Kolkata.

Mehidy Hasan, the offspinning allrounder, had a long batting stint in one of the three nets, and later said he had picked up a lot of information about the behavior of the pink ball.

"The pace bowlers will continue to bowl by dipping the ball on water in the coming days," Mehidy said of the training methods. "I think we can adapt in the coming days. Maybe it will skid a little more when it is wet. Spinners can get to skid the ball. There's also likely to be bounce and turn.

"I batted against the pink ball. It was moving and goes off rapidly after pitching. It goes off the bat quite quickly too. I think it swings more, and you can cut the ball too. We are still new to the pink ball. We haven't got a lot of time with it but we are trying to cover as much as possible. There will be an initial struggle, but it will only get better as we go along. But it will be important to play for long, particularly after a batsman has adjusted to it."

The general feedback after the two sessions was that most of the players "found it challenging" to sight the ball properly at twilight. "There's not a lot of problem seeing it while catching and fielding, but we have to be careful during the match," Mehidy said. "The seam can be sighted at times, but there are occasions when you can't see it."

^ Back to Top ^