Excited to play Day-Night Test, pacers will come into play more: Virat Kohli
India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday said the team is "very excited" to play their first-ever Day-Night Test with the pink ball, which he feels will bring fast bowlers into play more.
India will take on Bangladesh in the first Test at the Holkar Stadium from Thursday and after that, the two sides will meet for the second rubber which will be played under lights at Eden Gardens from November 22-26.
"It's quite exciting," Kohli said while addressing a presser on the eve of the first test.
"I think it's a new way to bring excitement to Test cricket. We are all very excited about that. The pink ball I played yesterday, I felt it swings a lot more as compared to the red ball because there's extra lacquer on the ball which doesn't go away too fast. And the seam holds upright quite a bit.
"I think if the pitch has extra help for the bowlers then the bowlers will be in the game, especially fast bowlers, throughout the course of the Test match. I don't quite know how the old ball behaves with the dew and the lacquer going off. It will be interesting to see how much the old ball does. With the pink ball, with the pitch having enough, the life in it will be a very important factor," the captain said.
India have not been too keen to play a Day-Night Test and even declined one in Adelaide last year.
However, new BCCI President Sourav Ganguly expressed huge interest in the team taking to pink-ball cricket as he felt that is the way forward. In a recent statement, Ganguly even said it took Kohli three seconds to say yes to pink-ball Tests.
"I hadn't played with the pink ball before," Kohli said here.
"I was given an opportunity to try and I wanted to, so that was my mindset behind playing with the pink ball. I think everyone else did it as well. You require extra concentration to pick the pink ball suddenly when you're playing with the red ball.
"It (the alternating) was to work on the reflexes a little bit as well. Because when you play with the red ball in the net and you arrive at the pink ball, it gets very difficult to pick it up, which can be the case in the game as well. It sort of gives you the match scenario and how it might be difficult to pick it early on. To get into that zone was the reason behind it."
India are currently at the top of the World Test Championship points table with wins in all the five games they've played so far in the championship.
They will start as overwhelming favourites against a Bangladesh side who are without skipper Shakib Al Hasan and seasoned opener Tamim Iqbal.
Kohli also said Bangladesh cannot be underestimated and that the focus, for now, is the first Test and not the pink ball rubber.
"In Test cricket, I don't think you can afford to take focus away at all, not even one session, not even one over," he said.
"With the red ball, you need to be absolutely precise in your focus, every game that you play, every ball that you play, every situation that you are in. Our prime focus is tomorrow's Test match. When the pink ball Test match arrives, as I said we will be quite excited about it."
