After Australia, it’s India to host a Day and Night Test match against New Zealand. If all goes well, the day-night match will be seen in India later this year. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur confirmed: “We have decided that we will play one day-night Test match with the pink ball against New Zealand using the pink Kookaburra ball later this year.”
Before hosting the day-night test match between India and New Zealand, India’s first-class competition Dulip Trophy will be used as a trial run for India’s players. The use of the pink Kookaburra ball for the day-night Test in India is a shift away from the red SG ball regularly used in India, but Thakur didn’t rule out using a pink SG ball in the future.
“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,” Thakur said. Other teams like South Africa, Pakistan is also planning to play day-night Test match against Australia.
The Proteas are unwilling to go ahead with the twilight Test, which is scheduled for the third Test of the Commonwealth Bank series against Australia. South Africa’s Test Captain AB de Villiers said: “At the moment we are not too keen on playing in the proposed day-night Test match due to a few concerns that have come from a number of sources involved in the maiden Test played last year.”
Dale Steyn said he would “love” to play in a day-night Test match before ending his career but later posted on Twitter that he did not mean against Australia this year. “I don’t want to go through my whole career without playing a day-night game,” Steyn told.