How will the pink ball behave this time around - that's the question! ©BCCI
By the time Mohammad Mithun was hit on the helmet by Ishant Sharma, Bangladesh already had two concussion substitutes in play. The floodlights were in full force at the Eden Gardens, the pink ball was moving around and Mithun just couldn't spot this bouncer. Sanjay Manjrekar on air called it the "nastiest of all the hits" in the match so far.
"The dressing room was in panic. We were also far behind in the match, so it was only fair," says Mithun. Bangladesh had come into their first-ever day-night Test with no practice match. All they had at their disposal in order to get used to the new challenge was a box of pink SG balls, which ironically were as untested at this level as the visitors themselves.
"We got less than a month to prepare the first set of pink balls and it was very, very hectic before the Kolkata game," recalls Paras Anand, the Director of Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) in a chat with Cricbuzz. It was only on October 29 that BCCI President Sourav Ganguly announced India's first ever pink-ball Test which was scheduled for November 22.
"BCCI did ask us whether we will be ready for the game before making the announcement, and we said we will be. Since we had done some work (in terms of our own research, we could deliver the balls in time)."
And as India
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