KOLKATTA: Ex-Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara did the honour of ringing the bell at Eden Gardens, Kolkata before the start of India vs Sri Lanka 2nd ODI on Thursday.
Siraj says the ball did not quite have the pace in it when they began. And that the swing died pretty soon. So he determined he has to bowl at the stumps. He says KL told him that the ball stopped swinging after the first over so he worked more with the wobble seam. He says it is a batting wicket, but it was Kuldeep who engineered the collapse in the middle overs. To start off the chase, we will have Hemant Brar in the commentary seat.
As per the customs at the iconic venue, since 2016, the bell is rung by a prominent player of the game 5 minutes before the match is scheduled to start.
Kapil Dev, the captain of India who won the World Cup in 1983, was the first person to ring the bell at the location. In the past, other cricketers including Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid have also performed the honours. Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, and Mamata Banerjee, among others, are examples of non-cricket luminaries who have participated in the ritual in the past.
The Cricket Association of Bengal-managed Eden Gardens adopted the custom from Lord's Cricket Ground, the "Mecca of cricket," which pioneered it in 2007.
Dasun Shanaka, the captain of Sri Lanka, chose to bat first after winning the toss in the match. Lahiru Kumara and opener Nuwanidu Fernando received debut caps as the captain made two changes to the starting XI. Both replaced the injured Pathum Nissanka and Dilshan Madushanka, respectively.
Only one change was made to the Indian starting lineup, with Kuldeep Yadav replacing fellow spinner Yuzvendra Chahal because the latter was unable to recuperate from a knock from the previous game.
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