After spending an enchanting vacation in Bhutan with wife Anuskha, Indian captain Virat Kohli joined the team in Indore ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh. The first match commences on Thursday. However, the bigger challenge waits in Kolkata where the teams will lock horns in a Day-Night Test.


Since Kohli and his boys have minimal experience against the pink ball, the team management decided to conduct a practice session with the ball at Holkar stadium. The captain was the first batsman to face the challenge. Though he struggled against a couple of deliveries, he didn’t stop producing some of his trademark cover drives.

Here’s the video:

The skipper himself took to his Twitter handle to share some of the snaps from the training session.

Besides Kohli, his deputy in Tests, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara also practised with the pink ball. The duo defended most of the deliveries and looked to play the ball with soft hands. There was not much visible swing and the ball was coming nicely to the bat on the practice pitches.

Earlier on Tuesday, the BCCI revealed a pack of pink balls which will be used in the net sessions. The forthcoming match at the Eden Gardens will not only be the first Day-Night affair for both the sides but will also introduce the SG pink balls.

As the stats say, there have been 11 DN Tests played so far and only the Kookaburra and Dukes pink balls have been used. The balls used in India between 2016-18 seasons of Duleep Trophy were also manufactured by Kookaburra.

The BCCI shifted to SG Pink balls just to avoid the use of two different balls in the same series.