Gautam Gambhir reacts to Tim Paine's challenge for a day/night Test match, asks for a pink-ball Final in the Ranji Trophy

Former Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambir, in his column for the Times of India, has expressed his thoughts on Tim Paine's challenge to Virat Kohli for a day/night Test match between India and Australia. He has also noted his desire for a pink-ball final in the Ranji trophy.

The 38-year-old wrote how a pink-ball Test between India and Australia would be exhilarating to watch and how he would have answered to Paine's challenge. Tim Paine captained Australia to a victory against Pakistan at the Gabba. He laid the challenge to Kohli, aiming at the Indian captain who could accept the invitation if he is in 'a good mood.'

A day-night Test match between India and Australia at Brisbane or the MCG will be quite a spectacle. And you can trust Aussies to make it a truly memorable game by some smart marketing. I haven't seen Virat's response for Paine but if I was him I would have straight away told him to make some late night babysitting arrangements as we were ready!!!

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Gambhir revealed his opinion about the current Bangladesh team after they lost to the hosts in the 2-match Test series earlier. He noted how the current competitive teams could help the emerging ones in their exposure to cricket.

It is a no brainer to say that Bangladesh side are a work in progress in Test cricket. In white ball cricket they can spring a surprise on their day. Overall, I think the lack of competitive cricket at first-class levels is hurting their lack of ability in Test arena. I just feel they are concentrating too much on shorter formats.

The world standards of cricket are not very healthy. Therefore the Big Daddys of the game need to support teams like Bangladesh. We can look at helping them out by allowing a Bangladesh team play in Duleep Trophy. Or may be a system where their top players can at least train with top first-class teams of India. International cricket won't go anywhere if top 4-5 teams getting better while others are languishing.

Gambhir applauded Sourav Ganguly's step to lay the foundations for India's first-ever pink-ball Test match. More than 50,000 fans showed up in the Eden Gardens (Kolkata) to witness the spectacle. He expressed his desire for a pink-ball Final in the Ranji Trophy as well.

I was at Eden Gardens and the Pink Ball Test was done really well by Sourav Ganguly and his team. There was just enough hype and drama around the game. I was happy to see that fans' interest was not compromised. I'd now request Dada to have a Ranji Trophy final with a pink ball.

The hosts India defeated Bangladesh in their first-ever day/night Test match against Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs, courtesy of nine wickets from Ishant Sharma and Virat Kohli's 27th Test century.

It was the second time where all wickets taken by the bowlers were from the pacers instead of spinners. Gambhir believes the reason for Bangladesh's failure in the day/night Test conditions is that their batsmen were not able to face a quality pace attack from India.

We need to understand that in day-night Test matches opening sessions will be relatively easier for the batsmen as they will be played under afternoon sun. It is the sessions that are played under lights that will have the ball darting around. It is nonsense to correlate Bangladeshi batsmen getting hit and visibility of the ball. Bangladesh has been unfortunate to have run into a world class Indian fast bowling attack.

Recently, the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) honoured Gautam Gambhir by naming a stand on his name at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.