Onus on pacers to shine in with pink ball
Image : Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
Can Bangladeshi pace bowler shine with the pink ball as they are heading for the day-night Test match against India, scheduled at Eden from November 22.
The pace bowling unit of the host needs to deliver if they want to attain success in the series concluding Test match as their opponents are not quite sure what to expect as neither having played a day-night Test earlier.
So they are expected to start on equal footing when things move to Kolkata though in reality, India have a lot more experience with the pink ball that their counterpart.
From the present Indian squad 10 of them have already played pink-ball matches in domestic cricket while the only exceptions are skipper Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav are not among them.
Bangladesh’s only pink-ball foray in the domestic circuit came in 2013 and none of the current squad members were part of that match.
So it won’t be an understatement that Indians will be better prepared than their Bangladeshi counterpart when the two sides will be locking horns at Eden.
In the opening Test while Abu Jayed remained the most successful bowler in the visitors camp he just did not get enough support from the other end that could have pushed the Indian in the back foot after they lost two quick wickets.
Ebadat looked nothing more than a net bowler if his bowling is taken into consideration as there was neither any bite nor any consistency with line and length.
As a result despite being pushed by Jayed the host team was never at unease considering they could release their pressure from the other end.
The pace bowlers are expected to have a major role to play in the pink ball as there will be lateral movement and if the tourist wants to have any chance to compete than they must match the Indian counterpart as they will be looking forward to exploit it to the fullest.
Apart from Ebadat, Bangladesh have two more pace bowler under their armory- Mustafizur Rahman and Al Amin Hossain.
While Al Amin was impressive in the just concluded three-match Twenty20 international series whether he will be able to take the load of longer version cricket is yet to be seen.
There were lots of talks regarding Mustafizur in the India media and it only grew stronger when Virat Kohli said that he is expecting him [Mustafizur] as a threat ahead of the opening Test.
The way Test skipper Mominul Haque turned down chances of Mustafizur in the opening Test with a poker face it was evident team management was not too sure about his credentials largely due to the fact he remained a shadow of his own in the limited version cricket.
If Bangladesh opts to go for a third seam bowler that is most likely to be the case then they have to choose any one between the two- Al Amin and Mustafizur- unless they omit Ebadat or there is any injury concern.
If that is the case then it will be a testing time for the pace trio as expecting spinners to play a major role will not fruitful considering there is going to be a dew fact that will make it hard for the spinners to grip the ball.
‘’When the ball is moving, especially on Indian conditions, is to keep the ball up. If you notice, most of our decisions or wickets that we get will be bowled, LBW or caught behind - all this happens when you keep the ball up,’’ Indian pace bowling Bharat Arun said after the opening Test pointing that it would be the same mantra for them when they take the pink.
Whether Bangladesh will take any leaf from their Indian counterpart will be seen in the upcoming days but unless their pace bowlers try to bowl up with a consistent line and that too as a bowling unit it will be hard for them to resist the Indian batting more so with the form they are playing moment and their fluency against short ball was displayed during the home series against South Africa as they were punished for wayward bowling.
