Don’t write off champions: Nathan Lyon on Kohli’s recent batting slump
The Australian team must be hoping to take advantage of Virat Kohli’s prolonged batting slump when the two sides clash in the five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has further established his belief that pink-ball Tests are the future of the cricket’s oldest format and wants team India to play at least one such match in every series.
India became the last major Test-playing nation to try their luck with the pink ball when they hosted Bangladesh in a Day-Night Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata from November 22.
On the very first day of his tenure as the BCCI president, Ganguly had expressed his desire to make India play in cricket’s newest format.
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He persisted the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and also convinced the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to make the second Test of the two-match series a Day-Night affair.
Now, the former Indian captain has reportedly said that he would want the Kohli-led team to play at least one pink-ball Test in every series.
“I am pretty upbeat about it. I feel this is the way forward. Not every test, but at least one test in a series,” Ganguly was reported as saying to ‘The Week’ magazine.
In the run-up to India’s first-ever Day-Night Test, BCCI ran an aggressive marketing campaign to inflict an interest among the people for the historic occasion.
From lighting the prominent landmarks of Kolkata with pink illuminated lights to widespread advertising in social media, the BCCI took every step possible to make the event a grand occasion.
Their efforts paid hefty dividends as the match, which ran for three days, witnessed a houseful crowd every day. And according to Ganguly, inspired by the turnout in Kolkata, other venues in India are also contemplating about hosting Day-Night games.
“I will share my experiences with the board and we will try and implement it in other places. After this, everyone is ready. Nobody wants to play test cricket in front of 5,000 people,” the former Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) added.
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