INDORE: Virat Kohli: The new pink ball swings more than the red.
Ravichandran Ashwin: Sometimes I don’t understand if it’s orange or pink, still coming to terms with that.
These were some of the observations coming from the Indian when they practised in Indore with the pink ball in the lead-up to their first day-night Test beginning in Kolkata on November 22.
On Sunday, the players who won the first Test against Bangladesh in three days took the field at Holkar
Stadium for their first training session with pink balls under lights. An air of excitement was building even before they arrived. The Bangladesh team had started their training at the venue earlier, from 4 pm.
Then came the Indians. While all the players were expected to stay back for training, captain Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane left for Mumbai in the morning with permission to join the team in Kolkata, where they will practise on Tuesday evening.
The pacers were given a day off since that is the practice the team management follows keeping in mind their workload. In the end, only six players turned up for this optional session — Cheteshwar Pujara, Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill.
Like Ashwin, a few others in the team also have a doubt about the colour of the ball.
The extra coating of lacquer makes it brighter, which under lights can resemble orange. Even the cameraman of the official broadcaster was seen adjusting his settings to make the ball look pink when the team got down to business around 5.15 pm. The session lasted about an hour and a half.
Watching the session from the stands, it was difficult to spot the ball when batsmen hit it in the air during the twilight period, but once the floodlights were fully on and the sky was dark, there was no such problem. It is this twilight period that has the teams worried. It will be around 5 pm in Kolkata this time of the year when winter sets in.
While the Test is scheduled to start at 1 pm, the final session will be from 6 to 8 pm to ensure there isn’t any adverse effect because of dew. The floodlights will be on as early as around 4 pm, meaning that the period of play under lights will be more than under natural light.
That will be the challenge for the players. It also is the difference between a day-night Test in India and other countries, where more of a day’s play is held under natural light.
That aside, the upcoming pink ball Test will be closely followed by other countries. Cricket Australia has been trying to persuade BCCI for day-night Test when India travel next year. Although Kohli & Co are not keen on that, it is understood that if the Eden Test goes well, the Indian team would be asked to consider if they play a day-night Test in New Zealand in February-March.
If India ends up liking the experiment, it would benefit the broadcasters as well, since Tests in New Zealand, in that case, will start in the afternoon Indian time instead of early morning, which doesn’t create much interest among the Indian audience.
India will not have another training session on Monday and rest instead.