Kolkata turns pink for historic India-Bangladesh Test match
India may be the last major test playing nation to embrace pink-ball cricket but they have left no stone unturned in promoting their first day-night test which will begin in front of a sellout crowd at Kolkata's Eden Gardens on Friday.
'The historic occasion'
To mark the historic occasion of the first-ever day-night Test in India, all the iconic spots of Kolkata, where the match will be held, turned pink.
The famous tourist points in the city were lit up in the colour to attract more people to the country's first pink-ball Test.
(Photograph:Reuters)
All lit up in pink!
Landmarks like the Big Ben on Laketown, Howrah Bridge, Tata Centre, Eden Gardens, the Elliot Park, and Shahid Minar are all decked in pink to mark the occasion.
Taking to Twitter, Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly posted some pictures of the spots."Welcome to pink test ..@JayShah @bcci," he wrote.
(Photograph:Reuters)
India squad
Squads of both India and Bangladesh for the two-match Test series are as follows, India: Virat Kohli (ct), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Saha (wk), R Jadeja, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant.
(Photograph:AFP)
Bangladesh squad
Bangladesh, Mominul Haque (c), Shadman Islam, Imrul Kayes, Saif Hasan, Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmud Ullah, Md Mithun, Musaddek Hossain Saikat, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Abu Jayed Chowdhury Rahi, Ebadat Hossain.
(Photograph:AFP)
Cricket diplomacy
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who travelled to India on Friday inaugurated the first Pink Ball day-night test match.
On the end of the first day's match, the premier will attend a small cultural program followed by a felicitation program arranged by the Cricket Association of Bengal at the ground of Eden Gardens Stadium.
(Photograph:AFP)