India will play Day-Night Test against New Zealand: Anurag Thakur
Jan 6, 2019 at 3:51 AM
BCCI, it seems, have taken a serious note of Test match attendances in India, and hence have come up with an idea to play a day-night Test match for the first time. India will play its first ever day-night test match against New Zealand later this year, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur confirmed.
“We have decided that we will play one Day/Night Test match with the pink ball against New Zealand later this year. Before that Duleep Trophy will act as a dress rehearsal for the Day/Night Test match,” BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur told media persons in Delhi on Thursday.
BJP MP revealed that the main objective of the Duleep Trophy this year will be to check how the pink kookaburra behaves at night in Indian conditions.
“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 Thakur.
Meanwhile, it is expected that many star Indian players will play in that Duleep game to give a feedback to the board before and then the final decision will be taken once players are on board.
Historically, Test matches in India are played with SG balls, but Thakur confirmed that in this Duleep Trophy match it will be ‘Pink kookaburra’ which will be used.
“We may ask SG to manufacture pink balls later but that has to be of the quality of pink balls that kookaburra produces,” Thakur concluded.
So far the only two countries – Australia played New Zealand – have played day-night Test and last year it was a huge success. This year Australia is slated to play Pakistan in a day-night Test match at Brisbane. Meanwhile, there were reports that South Africa, on the other hand, is not happy to play day-night Test match against Australia.
It will be a big achievement for the Indians to play day-night Test match in India. New Zealand are scheduled to tour India for 3 test matches and 5 One day Internationals this year. New Zealand have the experience of playing test cricket with a pink ball. Let’s see what happens with this historic step. If India agrees to play day-night Test match, then it will create energy among the people to come and watch the Test match.