Playing With SG Pink Balls Will Not Make A Huge Difference - Cheteshwar Pujara

Team India Test cricketers have started their preparation for the day-night Test against Bangladesh. Virat Kohli & Co will play two Tests against the Bangla Tigers. The second match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata with the historic pink-ball Test. Star batsman Cheteshwar Pujara feels that playing with pink SG balls will not make a massive difference.

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Previously, India had agreed to play one day-night Test against Australia but later backed out citing less time for practice. However, newly-elected BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, who has been a great advocate of day-night Test took it as a priority and talked with skipper Virat Kohli to host the first day-night Test.

While India will be playing their first pink-ball match, the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari have already plied their trade in day-might games. BCCI hosted the 2016 edition of the Duleep Trophy under the lights; however, it was played with Kookaburra Pink ball.

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Cheteshwar Pujara, who topped the scoring chart then with 453 runs including two hundred said it won’t be difficult to adjust with the SG balls. He also said that the quality of SG balls in India have improved in recent times and the players were happy with the standard during the South Africa series.

“I don’t think there will be a major difference when you start playing with the pink ball. Since I haven’t played (against the SG pink ball) I am not sure, but my assumption is that even the SG pink ball will be very similar to the red ball. I feel in India the quality of SG balls have improved,” Pujara said.

Previously, Cheteshwar Pujara had cited the twilight period as one of the problematic times to bat. However, the prolific batsman feels he can overcome it with additional practice before the start of the match on November 22. Pujara also lauded the move of hosting day-night Test as a part of ICC’s plan to improve the state of red-ball cricket.

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“Sometimes it is challenging in twilight playing with the pink ball. You need little more practice and once you keep playing with the pink ball at that time (twilight), you start getting used to it. So it’s just about doing few more practice sessions before we play the match. I will try and practice with the pink ball whenever there is an opportunity,” Pujara concluded.