India to play day-night Test

India to play day-night Test against New Zealand this year

Would the spectacle of watching Virat Kohli play the pink ball hurled by Trent Boult pull more fans into the cricket stadium, and in front of television, to follow Test match cricket?

That’s what the Indian cricket board intends to find out this October when they plan to introduce a pink ball Test in the three-match series.

The decision might well hinge on whether the pink ball allows R Ashwin to test Kane Williamson. Or considering that the Indian batsmen collapsed against the New Zealand spinners on a spin-friendly track in Nagpur in the World T20, would the Indian camp actually be happy to play them on a seamer-friendly pitch?

The ball would be first tested in Duleep Trophy at the start of the domestic season. Several factors can still prove to be a hurdle: Would the ball hold up for at least 80 overs?

Would it help Indian spinners to turn the ball? Would the ball be visible to the batsmen under Indian conditions at twilight in the last session of play?

“While we have not zeroed in on the venue, there are lots of factors that need to be taken into account. Things like dew factor, how the spinners bowl with the pink kookaburra on Indian pitches. These things we will get an idea during the Duleep Trophy,” said the BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur in Delhi.

“We have decided that we will play one Day/Night Test match with pink ball against New Zealand later this year. Before that Duleep Trophy will act as a dress rehearsal for the Day/Night Test match.”

It’s an attempt to increase the glamour quotient of Test cricket to attract more eyeballs, and an understandable development in the wake of the popularity of the pink-ball Test held in Australia last November.

Incidentally, that match , that ended within three days, divided the cricketing world into two camps — those who love pink, and those who want to be in red.

South Africa have refused to play a pink-ball Test suggested by Australia later this summer while Pakistan, who have experimented with pink ball in domestic cricket in 2012, and again in 2016, have agreed to play a Test.