Adversity at its utmost in Eden gardens

The annihilation by India against Bangladesh in the first Test at Indore was a foregone conclusion because of the glaringly evident imbalance between the two teams.

Record says, on their home ground the Indian team is simply invincible, while Bangladeshi have had the ignominy of losing to Afghanistan, who handed out an embarrassing thrashing to the tigers on the Afghan team's third international Test, held in Dhaka. 

Therefore, it would be a fallacy to think if the Tigers, who went in to the Test match without the two stalwarts Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, would make any difference at all.

The Kolkata Test beginning on November 22 with a Pink ball will be a day-night encounter and is ought to be giving nightmares to the tiger squad.

The extra movement of the pink ball may prove to be more of a bane than a boon, as the openers of Bangladesh seem to be clueless against the pace, bounce and movement of Indian bowlers.

Besides, Mushfiqur Rahim and to a certain extent Liton Das, were class apart on surviving in the crease, while all other batsmen looked a little too pedestrian in the Indore test.

On the Indian side, Mayank Agarwal, who scored the second double ton of his short yet phenomenal career, found Bangladeshi bowling too insipid, as he contributed 243 runs out of the total of more than 400 scored in a single day of the match.

The tigers should find bowlers who would be able to make early inroads in to a batting line up, which hasn't had much of experience itself of the pink ball.

Bowling in the right areas with consistent pace and movement may well be within the capacity of the Bangladeshi bowlers.

The bowlers should focus on consistent pace and maintain the line along the corridor on or outside the off stump to increase the possibility of getting wickets.

Making up for the lack of pace with a persistent line of attack is what the think tanks would expect the speedsters to execute.

A choice between Al Amin, Mustafiz and Ebadat Hossain would be playing in the minds of the selectors with Abu Jayed being constant.

The likelihood of Mithun being in the side may not be considered essential as his sojourn in the wicket counted for very little and the player has nothing extra to offer whereas Mahumudullah Riyad can contribute as a third spinner.

Miraz's stint with the bat may eliminate any possibilities of the youngster being left out of the squad despite his "not too impressive" bowling in the Indore test.

On the other hand, Taijul Islam may have toiled hard enough without much success but will be persisted given his experience and value in the Test matches recently.

During the first innings in Indore Test skipper Momimul Haque scored a 30 plus innings and showed how deliveries outside the off stump should be left alone, albeit for not too long that the team would have liked.

While he was criticised for opting to bat first after winning the toss, one tends to overlook the positive intent shown by the new captain, who was confident in taking on the Indian attack, being a front line batsman himself.

A confident approach by the players and belief in their own abilities would be key factors as Bangladesh take on India in the day night match at Kolkata on the 22nd of November.

Eden gardens will host two highly distinguished guests – prime ministers of both countries Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi – on the first ever day-night test match in India.

In addition, the match in Kolkata, the land from where BCCI president Sourav Ganguly belongs, would be a momentous occasion and a memory to savour.