Day-Night Tests are still a fairly new concept: Jasprit Bumrah
The Indian team is making “mental adjustments” before heading into the pink-ball Test at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium against Sri Lanka, vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah said on the eve of the encounter.
He admitted that not playing with the pink ball and Test cricket under lights regularly means the players had to put in place special preparations and they focused on exploring and gauging the behaviour of the pink ball in the build-up to the historic fixture, which will now be played with no restriction on the crowd.
“We have to make mental adjustments while preparing for the Pink Ball Test. Playing under light, fielding and bowling with Pink Ball are things we need to get used to and we keep all of these things in mind while in the training session,” Bumrah said during a virtual media conference in Bengaluru. “We are not used to catching or bowling with the Pink Ball. It is still a fairly new concept for all of us and we are trying to learn with every Test.”
Have played the Pink Ball Tests on different surfaces, so no set parameters for it: Jasprit Bumrah
This will be only India’s third day-night Test at home after the Kolkata Test in November 2019 against Bangladesh, incidentally, the same match where Virat Kohli scored his last international century, and the Ahmedabad Test in February 2021 against England. Quite remarkably, India sealed both these games within three days and hence have an unblemished record going against Sri Lanka.
However, one of India’s most nightmarish Test outings ever has also come in a pink-ball affair when they were folded for a paltry 36 in Adelaide in December 2020 before bouncing back to record a historic triumph in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
When asked to elaborate how the players have prepared for the coming game, Bumrah said: “It all depends on the individual. Pink Ball looks different, the speed at which it comes to you on the field and the amount it moves or spins is also different. Timings for the D/N Test are also different, so the ball might not do so much in the first session but might start to do more under the light. We have played the Pink Ball Tests on all different surfaces, so there are no set parameters for it.”
No conscious effort to manage workload during a Test
Meanwhile, Bumrah, who only bowled four overs all told in the second innings in Mohali where India thumped the visitors by a whopping margin of an innings and 122 runs, said that the reduced volume of bowling was down to the spinners “doing the job” and not managing workload, which he said would never be done in the middle of a Test.
“There was no conscious effort to manage workload once you are playing in a Test match. I was planning to bowl with (Mohammed) Shami on the second day but the light wasn’t quite right. Then with the spinners doing a good job on the third day, I wasn’t quite required to bowl,”
“I don’t think he would want to rest after such a good performance. He is on a high and would want to replicate it,” Bumrah said of Ravindra Jadeja, the Player of the Match in the first Test for his impeccable all-round show that included an unbeaten 175 and a match haul of nine.
