India and Bangladesh to play their first-ever pink ball Test in Kolkata from November 22.
Meanwhile, other teams like England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Pakistan, and Australia have already played at least one day-night Test previously and there have been some records made with the pink ball as well. It is an achievement for the new BCCI President Sourav Ganguly to convince both teams to play under lights.
Meanwhile, Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar has called for the separate statistical categories for day-night Test matches. "The only thing I feel is that the stats for pink-ball Test cricket should be separately maintained from red-ball cricket,” he said.
He called pink ball Tests as the future of Test cricket. "When day-night cricket started not much thought it would be successful but look at the huge following it has now, so there's no reason to believe that day-night Test cricket won't be successful too," said Gavaskar.
He further said, "Similarly, for limited-overs cricket also the stats should be separate for red-ball and white-ball, or some sort of distinction made so that future generations can know what was what."
Talking about the Indian team’s chances with the pink-ball, Gavaskar said, "This is a magnificent Indian team which can find a way to win even if they are playing on the snow in Iceland or sand in the Sahara Desert. So it does not matter whether any of the players have played earlier with the pink ball or not."
(AFP inputs)