Would have loved to play D/N Tests: Dravid

By Baidurjo Bhose

Kolkata, Nov 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) He was one of the best that India had when it came to Test cricket and former India skipper Rahul Dravid believes that Day-Night Test is definitely a brilliant idea if that is what the fans want.

After all, the Eden Gardens had around 60,000-odd fans in the stadium on the opening day of the second Test between India and Bangladesh on Friday.

"Brings back some lovely memories and I'm so happy to be here. When you have 45-50,000 people it is amazing. It is an incredible atmosphere and lovely to see this kind of crowd. It is superb and what more can you ask for? I hope we can do this more often," he said.

There have been talks of how the idea of using the morning session to dismantle the batting unit with the red cherry in conventional Test cricket would go for a toss with the advent of Day-Night Tests, but Dravid feels that the effect the red ball has in conventional Tests can be had in the evening session with the pink ball.

"In the first two hours today we saw the Bangladesh batsmen struggle. They were out for 106. Before there was the effect of the new ball in the morning, now you will have the effect in the evening session," Dravid pointed out.

Asked how he would react if Day-Night Tests were started when he was still playing, Dravid said that for him it has always been about seeing the crowd come and watch games.

"Would have loved (to play Day-Night Tests). I always wanted to play in front of 40,000-50,000 people. When we played at the Eden Gardens in 2001, you had 100,000 people watching and that gave us joy," he explained.

In the pre-match press conference on Thursday, India captain Virat Kohli had spoken about how pink ball Tests shouldn't become the norm, but Dravid said that it shouldn't be seen as a critical comment.

"No no, he didn't criticise it. He was supportive of it and I think it is a great idea," Dravid signed off.

Source: IANS