|| India Correspondent ||
Team India have won the second Test against England convincingly with a huge margin of 327 runs and levelled the series 1-1. The third Test will be played in Ahmedabad from February 24 with the pink ball which usually moves around a lot in twilight but India's dependable batsman Cheteshwar Pujara on Saturday said that it is difficult to guess how much the SG ball will swing in the first-ever Test under lights at the newly-made Motera Stadium.
He said: "We are not sure how much the ball is going to swing around for this particular Test," Pujara said in a virtual media interaction after the first net session. Early on it might swing a bit, but maybe going forward as the match progresses, it might not be a lot of swing but we never know with the pink ball it's very difficult to predict."
The experienced batsman also said that the pitch looked decent to him but "a lot could change with three-four days left for the Test" as well.
"It's a different ball game with the red ball. With the pink ball, it's very difficult to judge or assess anything before the match begins because sometimes you're expecting something but it turns out something else with a pink ball. I would just try to keep things very simple as a player, and not worry too much about the pitch," Pujara further added.
"I've played so many Test matches but with pink ball I also don't have enough experience. I don't think experience matters a lot when you are playing just one off game in a Test series with the pink ball," he again shared.
Team India have so far hosted only one pink-ball Test against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 2019 when they trashed the visitors by an innings and 46 runs inside three days as well.
However, the situation will be different against a mighty England attack which is a star-studded pace line up with the likes of James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, and others. And, Pujara said that they're not sure about the pitch yet.
"To be honest it's very difficult to predict whether you can keep the grass cover or can take it off. We are in a stage where we don't have a lot of experience as players but we are trying to figure out... We'll see. It's very difficult to say anything about it because we have played just one day-night game (in India) which was with the SG ball. The domestic games (Duleep Trophy), was with Kookaburra balls," he again shared.
"I feel it's an important game for us to qualify for the World Test Championship so we would try to focus on the things what we want to do as a team and make sure that we win this Test," he concluded.
