The day-night Test between Team India and England was wrapped up inside two days, making it one of the shortest Test matches of all time. And, reports have now emerged that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are reluctant to hosting pink-ball Tests in the future, based on the feedback from Indian players.
As per the Indian Express, the team management has complained about the pink ball’s visibility and noted that it skids much faster than the red ball. The pink-ball Test saw 30 wickets fall for just 387 runs, with spinners picking up 28 of them. Out of those, 21 wickets fell to deliveries that didn’t turn, but skidded on.
“What the players say is important. We will take a call soon on whether we should host pink-ball Tests in the future,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying.
After Team India thrashed England to take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series, a member of the team management complained about “too many variables” coming into play during day-night Tests.
“The problem when facing the pink ball is that it skids much faster compared to the red ball. Muscle memory makes batsmen believe that the ball will come at a particular speed after pitching like they are used to when playing with the red ball.
“But the pink ball comes much faster. This is a major issue. Also, our players are not keen to play Day-Night Tests because the pink ball has too many variables, including difficulty in sighting the ball,” he stated.
The report also suggests that a memeber of the Indian team revealed that the pitch was similar to the track used for the second Chennai Test, and if the match was played with a red ball, it would have lasted four days.
Axar Patel, who bagged 11 wickets in the game, credited his success to the extra coating of lacquer on the pink-ball, which was getting the ball to skid off the surface.
“I feel there is a little more glare on the pink ball because of which the ball was skidding a little more off the wicket, and I got LBW decisions because of that. Maybe because of this difference between the red ball and the pink ball, I was getting the ball to skid more off this pitch,” Axar had said.
The fourth and final Test will also be played at the same venue from March 4-8. It will be interesting to see how pitch turns out for the final Test.