'Australia without Steve Smith will perform like Bangladesh' - Dean Jones

Flying stumps. Batsman ducking and hopping around, physios running around up and down, concussion substitutes being brought in- not one, but two! It was all happening at the jam-packed Eden Gardens on the first day of the historic Pink Ball Test in Kolkata. As has been the case with a lot of opposition batsmen in the past two years, Bangladesh batsman didn’t have much resistance to put up against the incisive and hostile fast bowling of the Indian pace triumvirate- Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, and Umesh Yadav.

Bangladesh once again opted to bat first after Mominul Haque won the toss and one of the foremost things that everyone wanted to see was how will the Indian pace trio fare with the Pink ball. Will they be like have been in the past two years- Hostile? Relentless? Menacing? Fast and Furious? Commentator Harsha Bhogle had written before the Test match about the unknown factor of the Pink Ball Test on Twitter.

Bangladesh batsmen were dominated by Indian fast bowlers

To which Dean Jones had replied, “The same was said for the first ODI and First Class matches played under lights… they got used to it very quickly! Have a great call Harsha! #PinkBallTest

It did not take much time for everyone to get their answers as the troika started to attack the Bangladesh pacers with their craft. Ishant Sharma trapped Imrul Kayes with a leg-cutter that thudded back into his pads before Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami beat Mithun and Mushfiqur for pace, resulting in their stumps flying around. Bangladesh were eventually restricted to a humble total of 106 by the Indian pace attack.

So, with the Bangladesh batsmen all at sea against the pace and incisiveness of the Indian fast bowlers, Bhogle replied to Dean Jones remark stating, “The Bangladesh batsmen were very late on the ball.”

Replying to Harsha, Jones toed on the line that Bangladesh was missing their two major batsmen in Shakib Al Hasan (banned) and Tamim Iqbal (out for personal reasons), comparing it with the fact that Australia too would struggle if Steve Smith wasn’t in the side.

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