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Pink revolution

Indian cricket will be taking its first steps into an unknown territory as Yuvraj Singh’s ‘Red’ team take on Suresh Raina’s ‘Green’ brigade in the first ever match to be played with pink ball under fl

Indian cricket will be taking its first steps into an unknown territory as Yuvraj Singh’s ‘Red’ team take on Suresh Raina’s ‘Green’ brigade in the first ever match to be played with pink ball under floodlights and coloured clothing.

While there is a novelty factor with regards to an official first class match being played with pink ball, the lack of top stars will certainly rob some sheen from the Duleep Trophy beginning on Tuesday.

The likes of Virat Kohli, R. Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane will be busy in the United States playing T20 Internationals while the second batch comprising Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson is busy playing A series in Australia.

It is effectively the third string that will be playing the tournament with old guards like Yuvraj, Gautam Gambhir (Blue team) and Raina providing the BCCI with their inputs on conditions and other variables associated with an experiment of this magnitude.

Technically, this is not the first ever Day/Night first-class match in India as the 1995 Ranji final between Delhi and Mumbai (Bombay back then) was played in Gwalior but with a white ball.

With ICC keen on promoting Day/Night Tests in order to bring back the dwindling crowd in the longer format, the BCCI is keen on testing waters even though there are remote chances of a much anticipated ‘Pink Ball’ Test match being played during the upcoming home season.

It will be a test for BCCI’s chief of ground staff Daljeet Singh and his team to get the Shahid Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex ready for ‘Pink Ball’ match.

Yuvraj is “very excited” about the first ever first-class match in India scheduled to be played with pink ball.

“It will be exciting and we expect pink ball to swing. Unless we are out there in the middle, it will be difficult to give a feedback. This match will also serve as a comeback opportunity for me as well as (Suresh) Raina. We all saw the Australia versus New Zealand encounter and how much the ball swung,” Yuvraj said.

Rival captain Raina on his part said that this new stadium in NCR is known for good pitches as he has had the experience of playing a Ranji Trophy game against Baroda.

“I had played a game against Baroda and the pitch was good,” Raina said.

The players as well as the rival coaches — W.V. Raman and Narendra Hirwani — said that there has not been problems in sighting the pink ball even during the afternoon session.

However, with the practice pitches entirely different from the match strip which will have adequate grass cover to keep the shine of the pink kookaburra, it will be a completely different proposition in a match situation.

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