Is India Set to Play Its First Day and Night Test Match against Bangladesh?

The speculation of day and night Test match of Team India has been going on in recent times. While many supported the idea, newly-elected BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has also said that Indian captain Virat Kohli has also showed his interest in the day and night Test format.

So, Sourav Ganguly’s panel has asked to Bangladesh Cricket board for a day and night Test at Eden Gardens, Kolkata in the upcoming series which is scheduled to be played in November.

Akram Khan, BCB’s cricket operations chairman said, “They have proposed us and we will let them know after thinking a while. We received the letter two or three days (ago) and we will make a decision in this regard. BCB has not discussed about it. We will let them know about our decision within one or two days.”

Bangladesh will tour to India for two Test matches which will be a part of the ICC World Test Championship. The first game will take place in Indore on November 14 while the next one is scheduled to play on November 22. If BCB agrees, the first day and night Test match played by India can be seen as well.

Not only India but Bangladesh also are yet to play their first day and night test match. However, the first-ever day-night Test match was played between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval on 27 November 2015. 8 test playing nations out of 12 have played pink-ball test so far – Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

On the other hand, India is currently dominating in all the longer format of the game and placed at the top of the points table. Team Indian is yet to be defeated in the ICC World Test Championship and they played five games so far.

However, Sourav Ganguly too hopeful for the Test as well as India’s performance. He shared his views on this earlier as well. While talking to the reporters in Kolkata, Ganguly claimed that India always “plays well in big tournaments” but now their focus should be the ICC events and to win that. Despite highlighting the team’s failure in knock-out stages, the former captain said he has confidence in the leadership skills of Virat Kohli and backed him as well.

“India is a good team. I know they have not won a big tournament. But they play well in big tournaments except for the semifinals and the final. Hopefully, Virat can change it around. He is a champion player,” he concluded.