Tourists’ hopes of saving series look rosier thanks to pink ball
Hday-night Test should create conditions in which England seamers thrive and might make India’s spinners less effective
There is light for England at the end of the tunnel after their poor batting on a poor pitch in Chennai, and its colour is pink. England’s chances of bouncing back to win this series are appreciably enhanced by the fact that the third Test in Ahmedabad will be a day-nighter. The pink ball suits their style of cricket and their circumstances much better than another red-ball Test.
Starting in 2015, only 15 day-night Tests have been staged around the world, which is not a big sample, but two of the chief characteristics are that the totals are lower and that seamers are more effective than they are otherwise, spinners less so.
Lower totals are what England need if they are to force a result, not a high-scoring draw in Ahmedabad. All 15 day-nighters have ended in a conclusive result. In the three daynighters England have played, they have beaten West Indies very easily at Edgbaston, lost comfortably to Australia at Adelaide and lost to New Zealand after being bowled out for 58 in the first innings.
England need a definite result more than usual because, to qualify for the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in June, they have to win the last two Tests of the series, both in Ahmedabad.
The city has not been a happy hunting ground for Englishmen. Gandhi led salt marches from his ashram there. England lost a warmup game there in 1984-85 by an innings, the first time they had lost any tour game by an innings since 1962-63. But that was on the old ground before the Sardar Patel Stadium was built, then rebuilt, so it could accommodate 110,000, including one D Trump.
Pace bowlers have averaged 24 runs per wicket in the 15 day-night Tests. Over the same period in daytime Tests, they have averaged 29.
There is no appreciable difference in the amount of seam movement or swing movement that pace bowlers have generated in daynight Tests, though anecdotal evidence suggests that groundsmen leave a little more grass on the surface so that the pinkness of the ball is not discoloured too quickly.
Probably the biggest difference is visibility: the pink ball, like any other ball would be, is more difficult to pick up when daylight is fading and before the floodlights take over.
Spinners have been slightly less effective in day-night Tests overall – averaging 35 per wicket compared to 34 in other Tests – but this figure is misleading. Nathan Lyon has mopped up a couple of times in Adelaide after Australia’s pace bowlers have rolled over the opposition’s top order with a pink ball.
In India’s only day-night Test to date, in Kolkata, their spinners did not take a single wicket, but then they bowled only seven overs. Bangladesh’s batting collapsed so completely against India’s pace bowlers that Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja did not get a sniff; but that game is still encouraging for England if they are considering the recall of seam-and-swing specialists such as James Anderson and Chris Woakes.
In day-night Tests, there is no ostensible advantage in winning the toss, which was a major factor in both results in Chennai. The side winning the toss have won eight times and lost seven times.
Batting first is no advantage either: it is 8-7 again in favour of the side batting first. More important, probably, is what time of day a side bat, avoiding that twilight period where possible.
One caveat is that, although the ball has been pink in all 15 day-night Tests, they have been of three different makes. The games in England and the West Indies have been played with a pink Dukes ball, in India with the SG ball, and elsewhere with a Kookaburra.
Either way, the future for England is rosier, or pinker, than it would otherwise have been. When they last played in Ahmedabad, on a red-soil pitch that was the predictable slow turner, and with a red ball, they selected three seamers and only one specialist spinner, and duly lost by nine wickets.