Australia and England will face each other in the day-night Test at the Gabba in Brisbane from December 4 (Thursday) as the hosts will look to double their lead. Australia are playing their 15th day-night Test in history and have played the most in the history of the sport. On the other hand, England have played only seven so far and doesn't have a great record with the pink ball. With Test cricket so popular, especially in countries like England and Australia, why did the ICC introduce the format under the lights?
For more than a decade now, discussions have been going on around the existence of the longest and oldest format of the game. Many believe that there is a huge lack of interest in Test cricket, with a massive chunk of the audience preferring to watch T20 cricket, where the match ends in just four overs.
For the same reason, the ICC decided to introduce day-night Test cricket, with an aim to attract spectators, even to the stadium. The move has worked largely too but unlike Australia, not too many countries have started playing day-night Test cricket regularly. Among the big three, India and England do not even have day-night Tests in their home calendar regularly.
Moreover, the majority of the teams opt against playing day-night Tests as Bangladesh seemed bereft of ideas in 2019 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata with the match ending soon. Having said that, day-night Test cricket is interesting and has also attracted the spectators with Australia raking a lot of crowd. Let us now know why is the pink ball used and not red in day-night Tests?
Why is pink ball used in day-night Test cricket?
Pink ball is designed in such a way that it provides visibility to the players under the lights. Notably, there is a visibility issue with the red ball in floodlit conditions. Moreover, the white ball cannot be used as it loses visibility under the lights, with the players also wearing white jerseys. On the other hand, the pink ball offers a strong visual contrast in both natural and artificial lights.
However, under the lights, the pink ball swings a lot more and that makes the final session of a day-night Test intriguing. Teams tend to collapse in the last session under the lights, generally if the bowlers make the ball move with conditions favouring them to the fullest.
Nevertheless, the second Ashes Test is expected to be a thriller and it remains to be seen if it last five days, unlike other pink ball Tests. It all depends on England, who have forgotten or don't want to bat long. In that case, the Aussie bowlers can certainly have some fun, especially in the final session of the day when the ball moves a lot.
